Dying Shadows
by Princess-Xion
Summary: HIATUS, WILL BE UNDERGOING A COMPLETE REWRITE. SoKai / "The Darkness is everywhere—it may not seem like it is right now, but it is. It's always there, always changing, and it's always looking for your weakest spot." / If helping others comes before helping himself, then who's gonna save our hero?
1. Chapter 1

**"**_**Don't ever forget . . . Wherever you go, I'm always with you . . .**_**"**

In the Darkness, your experience is always the same. There's the initial silence and the confusion, and then the realization as you open your eyes. You can see, and yet you can't-what does it matter? It's all black. You take a tentative step, keeping your hands at your sides like you were always taught in preschool. Nothing happens at first, and then, the ground beneath you seems to explode as tendrils of shadow waft upward and all around you, like the ravens of a midnight sky.

Suddenly, you're not standing on nothingness anymore-you're on solid ground, looking at a picture of yourself forever engraved on a stained glass platform. You look around and you see nothing, feel nothing, and hear nothing except the sensation of your lungs contracting and expanding as you breathe. You're not scared yet-just bewildered. You ask yourself how you got there, to this desolate place, but you don't have the answers. How _could_ you have the answers when you don't even know the right questions to ask?

**". . . _Are you still dreaming?"_**

The stained glass platform is lit up from underneath you, and you're wondering to yourself what your next move is. You take a shaky, cautious step, half-expecting something else to detonate, but nothing happens, and you finally realize that you're somewhere you shouldn't be. The fear washes over you in a frigid blast, and you swallow.

**" . . . **_**Don't ever change . . ."**_

You run to the edge of the platform and look down, concerned with finding a way out. Nothing but darkness stretches out for miles, and the platform seems to be more of a pillar with no bottom. You wonder what you're supposed to do next, and whether or not you're sane. Is this a dream? Or is this a memory?

Are those the right questions to ask?

**"**_**I didn't want to forget about you . . .**_**"**

You squeeze your eyes shut and shake your head as behind you, a spot of Darkness gathers and a voice that is noiseless yet strident fills your head and tells you to fight. But you don't want to fight-you're done with fighting. You want to go home. You want to be with the girl you love, even though she doesn't know you love her. You just want to be normal again.

But were you _ever_ normal?

The platform starts to shake and tremble and you know you have to turn around and face your fears. You pivot on your foot and are blinded by a gust of shadow that you can feel like wind in your hair. You look up, up, up, and a familiar enemy is there. It's the first one you ever fought-the first piece of the Darkness that you ever defeated. But did you win? Hard to tell.

After all, Darkness is everywhere, even in the farthest reaches of the Light.

And vice-versa.

**"**_**His voice always used to be there . . . But now it's gone . . ."**_

It's in your hands now-the metal hilt is ice-cold in your grip. The feeling of it is familiar, and you automatically know what to do. You know how to fight your enemies. But do you know how to fight yourself? The Darkness is fighting for dominance over your heart just as hard as the Light is.

Which will win?

The Heartless is gargantuan, with a heart-shaped hole gaping at its center that you wouldn't dare jump through, even if you had to. And yet it calls to you, raising even more questions in your mind about what it would be like to live with that hole. Hell, you might even already have the hole.

How big is it?

Is it growing?

**"_Maybe . . . Waiting isn't good enough._"**

You're agile, and you're light on your feet. You always liked your small muscles, and your toned abs; always told your silver-haired friend that big muscles made for slower reflexes on the battlefield. He always laughed and told you how much he begged to differ. Those instances usually ended in sparring sessions that Riku always won up until you defeated Xemnas. After that, you always seemed to spot Riku's weaknesses as easily as if he wore them on his sleeve.

And that was when you lost him.

**"**_**This is real . . ."**_

You can remember the feeling of her fragile, petite body in your arms, absent from you for two years until you found her again. You can remember how much you loved her again when you saw her-how could you have forgotten?-and you use the memory to propel yourself upward and defeat the giant Heartless. You land on the platform on one knee, your blade outstretched and your head bowed, images and words of her floating back and forth like a banner in your mind.

You love her, you love her, you love her, you . . . _Loved_ her.

When you got home, it all changed. You broke your promise. You . . .

You changed.

You weren't supposed to.

You weren't supposed to break her heart.

And that was when you lost her.

**"**_**There are many worlds, but they share the same sky . . . One sky . . . One destiny . . ."**_

You toss aside your Keyblade-black as night; Oblivion-and rise to your feet. You don't want it, Without her, being a hero means nothing. What's a hero without a princess to save? What's the night without the moon? What's the point of living without a reason to take your next breath?

The worst thing about it all . . . Is that it's your fault.

Footsteps echo on the platform, and you turn around. You're extremely surprised to see an old face. Could he be real? Or did you just conjure him up from the recesses of your mind? The pink scar that crosses his forehead seems to stand out against his pale skin, and his silver-blue hair falls away from his face like a waterfall of grey rain. His hands are behind his back, and he stops a few feet away from you.

"Is she that important to you?" he asks, and you feel something click inside your head.

"Yeah." The words fall from your lips like diamonds of sorrow. "More than _anything._"

"Show me how important," the Nobody asks. His words are familiar-more familiar than his face.

You know you've participated in this conversation before because you committed it to memory as soon as he mentioned her, all those months ago in The World That Never Was.

You look around, and then slowly sink to your knees, just as you did before. You fall forward and place your palms flat on the stained glass. You're prostrating yourself in front of your enemy, and for what? You've done this all before! You already know how it's going to end! Why not skip the frivolities?

Because she's _that _important to you.

"Please . . ." Your plea is broken, the once pristine diamonds now cracked and split from the inside out. You were tired of fighting and searching and running back then, and you're tired of fighting and searching and running now. You just want to see her again; want to feel her trembling in your arms forevermore.

"So you really do care for her," the man's sunset-colored eyes are emotionless as they look upon your bowing, powerless form. "In that case . . . The answer is no."

The man-you remember him as being called Saïx-fades into the darkness that surrounds the platform, and your tears course down your face like crystalline droplets of ice. You want nothing more than to fix the damage that you've caused, but you can't. There's no going back.

Once you break a promise, it's broken.

Forever.

_**"When I turned into a heartless, you saved me, remember? I was lost in the Darkness. I couldn't find my way. As I stumbled through the dark, I started forgetting things. My friends, who I was-the Darkness almost swallowed me. But then . . . I heard a voice! Your voice! You brought me back . . ."**_

* * *

_**"Helping others comes before asking others for help."**_

"So whose gonna help _me_?"

Kairi glanced up from skipping stones across the icy surface of the ocean to give Sora an odd look. She'd gotten used to him saying strange things ever since their second journey ended, but lately it'd gotten . . . Worse, if that was the right word to explain what she was trying to explain. His sentences had dwindled to random phrases, unfinished thoughts, and unanswerable questions spoken just for the sake of being spoken. It was all terribly unlike Sora, but whenever Kairi inquired as to what was going through his head, she never got anything except for an unbearably sad, puppy-dog-eyed stare. She'd stopped asking merely for the sake of never seeing him look so lost again.

The redhead placed a slender hand on one equally slender hip and eyed Sora carefully, watching for any sign of the aforementioned "look." She was prepared to cheer him up at any cost. After all, he and Riku were supposed to be leaving the Islands in only a few days. Despite Kairi's irritation at Sora refusing to allow her to travel with them, she knew he couldn't possibly hope to fight in such a depressed state, and she wanted to help out in _some_ way. She was getting so tired of feeling helpless—she didn't _want_ to live the normal life she'd been forced to live while waiting for Sora each day on the beach until the day the fiery-spirited Nobody named Axel had come to whisk her away. No, she _wanted_ to live the life of a heroine—of a fighter struggling to keep herself alive day-by-day, traveling distant worlds and rescuing people and ridding villages of the Darkness.

Kairi adjusted the tied strings that made up the neck of her black bikini top and turned back to look out at the ocean. Once, she would have been embarrassed to wear nothing but two pieces of fabric in front of Sora, but now that he was always so lost within himself, she doubted he even paid attention to how scantily-clad she got around him. Why, just the other night, he'd appeared in her room directly after her shower, claiming no reason other than that he was bored. She'd walked into the room in a towel with her elbow-length crimson hair loose, scraggly, and dripping wet around her bare arms, and he'd barely thrown her a second glance.

Sighing for the umpteenth time that afternoon, Kairi hooked her thumbs beneath the damp, itchy part of her bikini bottoms—you know, the parts that always chafe the backs of your thighs when you're air-drying after a good swim—pulled them outward so that they wouldn't ride up, and bent over to search the shallow depths for another good stone to skip. She'd grown tired of mulling over this and that in her head. She was tired of thinking deep thoughts all the time, wondering about philosophical things until she felt like her brain would explode.

After all, she'd done nothing _but_ wonder and think while she'd waited on that shore for Sora's return.

"It's been exactly one year," Kairi heard the Keyblade Master say before the soft splash that indicated him diving into the sea came to her ears. She stood up quickly and placed the edge of her palm over her eyes to shield the precious cerulean irises from the harsh early afternoon sunlight as she searched the waves for her friend.

Sora surfaced a ways away, shirtless and with his spikes drooping all over his head in a ragged, unkempt "bedhead" kind-of way. He looked out at the horizon, then turned to look back at the crimson-haired beauty standing in the shallows. His eyes were piercing—cobalt reflecting the aquamarine waters like twin sapphires—and she bit her bottom lip somewhat uncomfortably. It had been quite a long time since he'd looked at her directly, and what with her standing there in a triangle bikini top and bottoms that tied with strings on the sides, she felt more exposed than she ever had in her entire life. She found herself absentmindedly rubbing her ever-so-concave stomach and just-showing ribcage, gazing back at him as if waiting for him to answer some unspoken question, and she wondered if he'd noticed how hard she'd worked to stay beautiful for him while he was gone.

"If there's one thing I learned in all my journeying . . ." Sora hollered to her, floating on his back and starting to lazily drift further and further away.

". . . It's that you should never take a good, relaxing swim for granted." He dipped his body back under the water, swam toward Kairi, and then hopped up when the water reached his waist. He flashed her a winning smile, and for a moment, he was his old self again.

"Say," Kairi said, "it's getting kinda late. Wanna head back over to the main island?"

Sora stepped closer and tossed his head to force his wet bangs out of his eyes—they'd gotten long; they were chin-length now, much like Kairi's own side-swept fringe. Kairi couldn't help but sweep her eyes across Sora's tan, slightly-muscled chest. There was a rather large, ugly white scar about six inches long, vertical, and right in-between his pectoral muscles.

'_That's where he stabbed himself, isn't it?' _Kairi thought to herself, embarrassed at not having noticed the scar before. '_Where he . . . Killed himself . . . For __**me**__.'_

Sora turned around again and looked out to the horizon. He folded his arms across his chest, seemingly unaware that Kairi's gaze was burning holes into his back. He had such a small frame from behind that Kairi wondered how he hadn't snapped like a twig during all of his battling. The silence that stretched between the two of them dragged out for a bit, before Kairi remembered that she'd been standing in the salty water for God-knew-how-long, and her feet were going to get wrinkled.

"Don't ever forget about me, Kai," Sora suddenly said, just as the willow-thin girl was prancing her way back to the sandy beach. She paused, and shot him an odd look—there was one of those confusing, random phrases again.

"I . . . I never have, Sora," she answered softly. "You know that."

He chuckled and shook his head. He whispered something under his breath that Kairi didn't catch.

"Huh?" she said.

Sora tossed his hands up, as if in defeat, and turned to look at her with a mixture of annoyance and disbelief in his eyes.

"You just don't get it, do you?" he repeated.

"Get what?" She squeezed her toes so that the wet sand squelched between them.

His eyes were burning so brightly. "The Darkness is everywhere—it may not seem like it is right now, but it is. It's _always_ there, _always _changing, and it's _always_ looking for your weakest spot. If it wanted to, it could make you forget about me like _this_." He snapped his forefinger and thumb to emphasize his point, and Kairi saw fear staunch the color from his face.

"Sora, I'm a Princess of Heart!" Kairi persisted, bewildered at his sudden outburst. She tossed her impossibly long crimson tresses behind her and her hands went to her hips. "I've resisted the Darkness all this time—I think I'll be fine."

He just stared at her, and the expression—she could sense it—was slowly forming on his face. That sad, sad, _unbearably sad_ look that told her that he was so lost that he didn't even know what to do with himself. That look of hopelessness that _wasn't_ Sora; _wasn't_ the look of the boy that could stop her heart with just his smile. So she thought of something quickly; a plan to divert his attentions to something he felt passionate about.

"You know," she said, her scheme rolling off of her tongue like water droplets. "I'm so confident in what I believe that if you let me come to Disney Castle with you guys, then I can prove to you I can—"

"No." His voice was quiet. Dark. Threatening. He'd closed his eyes, and the blankness of his facial expression was frightening.

"But," she protested, clenching her fists at her sides, "I can fight—you saw me in the World That Never Was! I'm a Wielder, just like you and Riku, and I can hold my own in battle!"

"No," he repeated, and Kairi knew she was walking on thin ice. But she was stubborn—perhaps more stubborn than Sora himself—and as persistent as the law.

"If you'd just let me _show_ you . . . Let me _prove_ to you that I can fight, then—"

"_No!_"

Sora's sudden shout of anger caused Kairi's heart to skip a beat. She unconsciously took a step back, knowing that she hated this side of Sora. The only time she'd ever seen him so angry was when she'd been fighting her way down to him in the Castle That Never Was, and she'd spotted him from the balcony, fresh from the heat of battle. She'd called his name, and when he'd turned, there was a split second where she could see nothing but uncharacteristic rage in his eyes before it had melted away to joy when he'd seen that it was her.

And yet . . . The memory of that rage was burned into her mind as clear as day, and she saw it in her nightmares on a regular basis.

It terrified her.

"I won't be the reason you get hurt," Sora said, quietly this time, and he seemed defeated as he began to slowly make his way to shore. "I _can't_ let it happen."

"Sora, I _won't_—"

He cut her off by shooting her a blazing glance. "I'm _not_ willing to take that chance. You're not going."

Kairi's mouth hung open slightly as she watched him stalk back toward the Seaside Shack. His blue swim trunks with the red-and-orange flames up the sides seemed too comical and childish for such a tall, young man, and especially not for the situation at hand. The poor girl realized that tears had filled her eyes and, chin trembling, she squeezed her eyes shut in the hopes that she could will them away.

After a moment, Kairi followed Sora and grabbed his shirt off of the ground. Sora, who was standing underneath the waterfall and watching the water drip off of the ends of his fingers, didn't seem to notice her slipping the black V-neck on over her head. It was much too big for her frail frame and the hem stopped in the middle of her thighs, but she didn't mind—she had become enveloped by his warm, spicy vanilla scent—and she sat down at the edge of the freshwater pool, letting her feet hang in as she watched him shower the saltwater out of his hair.

Kairi had already resolved that she was going to go with them, by any means possible. Even if she had to talk Riku into it, or sneak onto the gummi ship when Donald and Goofy came to pick them up, she was _going_ with them. There was no way she was staying behind again, helpless, waiting, worrying. There was no way she was going to stand on that beach day in and day out, skipping meals in the hopes that Sora would come back and find her delicate and lovely, dreaming and hoping and wishing. Kairi was tiny, but she had a strong spirit, and she knew that with a little bit of help, she could hold her own in battle. Even if it took her awhile, she was encouraged by the thought that Sora had been thrown into this whole mess with the Darkness and the Keyblade with exactly the same amount of fighting skill as her—if he could learn, then so could she.

When Sora and Kairi finally walked across the docks to get to Sora's boat, not a word had been shared between the two. The silence wasn't so much awkward as it was unsettling. Sora was so lost in thought that he'd barely noticed Kairi—he hadn't asked for his shirt back, hadn't apologized for yelling, and hadn't even said any of his weird, quirky things. Normally, Kairi would panic that something was wrong, but she, too, was lost in thought: lost in her plans to find a way onto that gummi ship.

Sora stepped into the boat, blindly reaching for Kairi's hand to pull her in after him. It hardly rocked at all, but Kairi's bare foot got caught in the rope at the bottom, causing her to fall against Sora's bare chest in a most unseemly way. He caught her with one strong arm, and soon, the two found themselves gazing intently at one another in a way that they never had before. Immediately, the blankness in Sora's eyes melted away, and he raised his free hand to touch the side of Kairi's smooth cheek.

"I'm sorry," he murmured, his eyes searching hers. "For yelling."

"It's okay," she mumbled, her face flushing and goose bumps rising all over her arms at his gentle touch on her face. Her eyelids fell shut as he ran his fingers through her hair, down the luxurious lengths, and traced a lazy circle on her lower back.

"You just have to understand how worried I would be," he explained quietly, the boat only shaking a bit, what with the way Kairi's legs were quivering out of nervousness. "I mean, you were kidnapped both times you've ever left the Islands."

"I fought once, though!" Kairi supplied. "Don't ignore that I did!"

His smile was sad. "Yeah, but it's not enough, Kai. There's no way you'd be able to stand up against some of the Nobodies that have appeared. It's not just little Shadow Heartless anymore—it's much worse." He was looking past her now, though they were sharing in each other's gazes, and his lethargically moving hand was traveling lower and lower by the second. Kairi felt so embarrassed and strange and good, all at once, and her pulse was racing. She doubted, however, that Sora was fully aware of what he was doing. So she let him ramble on, doing nothing except keeping her grip on his bony shoulders firm and focusing her mind away from his dancing fingers.

"If you got hurt, and it was because we were in the middle of a battle, and I didn't help you . . ." He trailed off, closing his eyes as his fingers suddenly waltzed across the swell of her bottom, and she could feel the heat of his skin on hers even through the fabric of his shirt against her bare skin.

Much to Kairi's embarrassment, her body betrayed her desperate desires to keep quiet, and she gasped aloud and, even more horrifying, her back arched up against his chest. The arm that was holding her close suddenly stiffened, and Sora went completely silent. His wandering hand completely ceased all movement, and Sora realized exactly what he'd been doing that was keeping her from interrupting his train of thought, as he'd expected her to do. Blushes the color of beets spread across both of their faces and Sora hurriedly let go of her.

"Sorry," he muttered. "Sorry, Kai."

"It's . . . It's fine . . ." Kairi's voice came out meek and slightly shaky. Her heart was still beating wildly out of control, and she was surprised that the simple action of Sora touching her could make her react in a way that she'd never reacted to anything ever before. She was terrified of her own actions, as well as the power Sora held over her, so she finally allowed her legs to give out from underneath her. She sank into her seat in the rowboat, as did Sora, and he slowly dipped the oar into the water.

Their gazes did not meet again for the rest of the trip.

* * *

_**"Why do you hate the darkness?"**_

The distinct pattering of leather soles on stark white marble echoed, singing a song of urgency.

"_**You accept darkness, yet choose to live in the light."**_

The bearer of the footsteps, tall, thin, and clad in a floor-length trench coat the color of night, seemed to be in quite a hurry.

"_**So why is it that you loathe us who teeter on the edge of nothing;" **_

In his left arm, he carried a clip board. In his right, a set of innumerable silver keys on a large ring.

"**w_e, who were turned away by both light and darkness," _**

He tossed his head to throw back his hood, and from the thoughtful expression on his face, he seemed to be debating his next course of action.

"_**never given a choice?"**_

The right side of his mouth curved up into a smirk as he paused in the middle of the doorless hall and gazed at the keys in his hands with amused saffron eyes.

"_**What other choice might we have had?"**_

"The boss can wait," his soft, melodic voice trilled somewhat happily to himself. "I think I'll go visit my little Honeybee one more time before I go back to attending to his every whim . . ."

The man slipped the ring of keys into the pocket of his trenchcoat, raked his fingers backward through his messy black hair, and used his now-free hand to open a Dark Corridor in the center of the hall. Smirking that unsettling little half-smirk, he walked confidently through the portal. He emerged in another hallway; one that was just as white as the rest of the castle, yet in this one, heavy steel doors were set evenly along the walls. The cloaked man headed to the fourth door on the left, took his time searching for the right key, and then entered the cell.

"Well, well, well," he said to the room. "How is my little Honeybee on this _fine_ morning?"

There was a groan and a creaking sound as a small female frame rolled over on the cot that was positioned in the far left corner of the cell. She turned just in time for the man to vanish and reappear beside her, hand around her throat and jarring her completely awake. He slammed her up against the wall and held her up on her tiptoes, enjoying the choking gargles coming out of her throat.

"Nothing to say?" The man tilted his head to the side almost coyly. "You know, you should consider yourself lucky. If it weren't for me taking a liking to you, you wouldn't have such a nice cell with a bed and clothes to wear." He smirked. "Though I'd rather you be naked, like the rest of the prisoners, I'd rather you be comfortable."

"Wh-Why?" the girl managed to spit out, her azure eyes glittering with fear and anger as she struggled for air.

"Why?" The man threw his head back and laughed, finally letting her slide down to her knees on the cold marble beneath their feet. "Why? Because the poor excuse for a heart I have beating within my chest tells me I like you."

She rubbed her neck, her jagged raven hair falling forward over her shoulders as she coughed out a reply.

"Why, though?"

He smiled softly. "Same reason why Infinite wants you alive. You're important."

She threw her hair back and suddenly shot him a hate-filled gaze. "Yes, but _why_, Seorax? Why not just let me go if you care about me so much?"

Seorax chuckled and knelt down in front of her, setting his clipboard on the edge of her bed as he sank down.

"Silly little girl," he said, amused. "Why would I convince Organization Zero to let you go when I was the one who convinced them to bring you back in the first place?"

The girl's mind was working furiously, trying to put two-and-two together as she searched Seorax's handsome face for answers.

And then, it clicked.

"Roxas," she murmured in shock. Her eyes shot open. "You want Roxas, don't you?"

Seorax snorted and stood up. "Close, Honeybee. Close, but not quite." He turned and walked over to the door. He paused at the entryway, however, and turned to shoot her a curious gaze over his shoulder.

"What do you remember of your life beforehand?" he asked.

"Whatever I choose to remember," the girl spat out dangerously.

Seorax gave her a little half-smirk. "I suggest you 'remember' everything there is to know about the Keyblade Master and his feelings for the Princess of Heart, and I suggest you do it fast. Infinite has a new plot brewing, and if you don't keep up, he just might make a move not even I can predict, and then . . . Then I can't help you."

The girl's face softened, she scrambled to her feet, and she dashed to Seorax's side. She gripped his hand tightly.

"You promised me you'd reunite me with Roxas," she whispered harshly. "You gave me your word."

Seorax turned around and held her chin. "My word is naught but dust beneath the foot of Infinite, and you know it. We must tread carefully if we want this to go our way."

The girl nodded.

"I'll send for you tonight," Seorax said.

The girl stepped back, hugging her arms around her emaciated body and trying to will away the thoughts of a certain spiky-haired blonde Keybearer's smile.

"Be ready . . ."

The door slowly swung shut.

". . . Xion . . ."

* * *

**"In the end, every heart returns to the darkness whence it came. You see, darkness is the heart's true essence."**

Riku wasn't normally one to reminisce about his time in league with Ansem. He didn't like to remember his betrayal of Sora, nor did he like to dwell on the fact that he had once kidnapped Kairi and allowed her heart to be swallowed by the Darkness. He almost never thought of his time with the Organization; never thought of the clever little girl with the face like Sora's and those startling cobalt eyes-the curiosity that had constantly burned within the shimmering irises was always startling.

Despite his discomfort and guilt, however, Riku sometimes found his sins creeping up on him whenever his back was turned. In the quiet, solitude of a starry night, or in the middle of a school day, where he was bustling from class to class-these were the times he usually found himself remembering harsh words that had been exchanged, or the burning hatred that had constantly shone in Maleficent's eyes.

As Riku slowly loaded duffel bags and suitcases into the rather luxurious gummi ship that King Mickey had sent, he couldn't keep the thoughts from coming to him again. Riku had constantly asked himself over and over again why he'd fallen to the Darkness so easily and so quickly, but he could never come up with an answer.

At first, Riku had blamed Sora. He'd been so blinded by his desire to one-up Sora in everything that they did that he'd though those were his reasons. When that didn't make sense to him anymore, Riku had blamed Kairi, of all people. After all, when he'd kidnapped her, he'd had a huge crush on her that could be sensed from a mile away. Of course, as he'd grown older and realized that he needed _women_, not girls, his feelings had faded. Lately, Riku had been blaming himself and the weakness of his heart for the whole thing, but you can only blame yourself for so much before you become self-destructive, so Riku knew he needed to stop.

Nowadays, the usual thought on Riku's mind was trying to find the connecting link between himself and others like him-others who had been followers of the Light, and who had given their hearts over to the Darkness in search of power more easily than they should have. He wanted to see what it was that had caused them to give in so easily. Maybe then he could get some peace of mind, knowing that he wasn't the weakest of all.

Just then, the soft pattering of footsteps in the sand wrenched Riku out of his reverie. He settled his aquamarine gaze on the short, squat duck formally known as Donald.

"Hey, Donald," Riku said, jerking his head rightward to force his bangs out of his eyes.

Donald's wings bent halfway and the talking bird made a pose that could only be described as "putting his hands on his hips." He looked miffed, so Riku knew he needed to tread carefully-Donald's temper was infamous.

"Where is Sora?" the duck squawked angrily, squinting as the late afternoon sunlight shone directly into his eyes. "He and Goofy wandered off back to the main island hours ago, and they haven't been back since!"

Riku sighed in exasperation. Sora sure had a way of never being on time.

"_Yes, Riku, I know that we need to go save this princess, but I'd kinda like to go train in the Pride Lands for five million bajillion hours."_

_"Sure, Riku, I understand that meeting up with Leon is uber important to you, but I really feel that it's important that I visit Wonderland to take a nap with the Cheshire Cat-he's so fluffy, you know."_

_"Of __**course**__, Riku; we __**totally**__ can make it over to the Word That Never Was to fight the final battle, but first, I think I wanna go to Agrabah and talk to Genie about sand."_

Riku smirked to himself. Sure, his thoughts had a tendency to exaggerate, but as far as he saw it, Sora was just as selfish as Riku's mind made him out to be.

"Don't worry, Donald," Riku said, fondly patting Donald's shoulder-if you could call it that. "We can look for them later. Right now, do you think you could go pick a couple coconuts from the other side of the island?"

"_Coconuts_?" Donald hollered. "Whaddya need _coconuts_ for?"

Riku winced. Apparently, everything Donald felt the need to say just _had_ to be shouted.

"Sora and I like coconut milk-that's all," Riku explained through gritted teeth, his ears still ringing.

"Oh, okay," Donald said good-naturedly-a complete one-eighty of personality and character-and waddled off to the Seaside Shack.

Riku rolled his glimmering eyes and turned back to the door of the gummi ship. His heart literally stopped beating and he cried out in alarm when he almost smacked right into someone he definitely hadn't expected to see.

Kairi crossed her arms over her chest and glared up Riku as if he'd done her a personal wrong. She was clad in nothing but her black string bikini-the one he'd seen her wearing earlier that day for a beach outing with Sora; an outing that he'd also seen the two come back from looking _awfully_ somber. He'd briefly wondered, at the time, whether or not something had happened between the two that had caused the awkward silence, but he'd been on his way to a very pretty, very available girl's house at the time, so he'd opted for not caring.

"Before you say anything," Kairi spoke, "I'm not looking for sympathy, permission, or anything of the sort."

Riku blinked.

She continued, "I _know_ Sora doesn't want me coming with you guys, but I've already decided-I'm going. So we're gonna do this _my_ way, or I'm going to kick you where the sun doesn't shine."

Riku couldn't help but grin at his feisty redheaded pal.

"At your service, milady."

Kairi smirked.

"All right, so here's the plan . . ."

* * *

**A/N: What's up, all; I'm back. -fierce, determined grin. This new story is my pride and joy-my baby. Don't hurt it. -winks and salutes- We'll see how it all turns out. The beginning part was the beginning of an old story I had posted, but then deleted it, so it may seem familiar, but everything else after it is new. Enjoy~~**

**Disclaimer: This is the only disclaimer I'll put in the entire story, so you better just enjoy this one. Kingdom Hearts and it's main plot, characters, and other creations associated with it are not mine. Same goes for Final Fantasy. However, the plot in this story, including anything that is mentioned in the plotline of this story that has not already been featured in an established Kingdom Hearts game IS mine.**

**In your review, ask me any question you'd like and I'll answer it no matter how personal.**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Omg, I can't believe I waited so long to update. -smacks forehead- I've had this written for the past like, 3 months, omg. I'm so sorry3 I've given you a long chapter as an apology~**

* * *

_**"Once we step through, we might not be able to come back. We may never see our parents again. There's no turning back. But this may be our only chance. We can't let fear stop us! I'm not afraid of the darkness!"**_

_Plunk. Plunk. Plunk._

One-by-one, the smooth stones that Sora had just picked up disappeared into the sea. He stared down at the ripples in the water that they created, and wondered what the ocean would say if it were alive. Would it be angry that humans were dumping random objects into its body? Or would it be pleased to know that someone, no matter how small compared to it, had noticed it enough to give it a gift?

The spiky-haired brunette heaved a heavy sigh and lifted his solemn gaze to the horizon, watching as the sun continued its languid, graceful descent in the sky. In his hands, he held the glass bottle that King Mickey's second letter had been borne within, and, like a movie still, he could see the words burning brightly before his mind's eye. He couldn't stop thinking about the journey ahead of him, wondering if he really felt like he was ready. His heart was so tired-it had been through too much in the past few years-and his body was exhausted from constantly being on edge. He'd tried so hard to enjoy a normal life when they'd returned a year ago. He'd attended school, church, and get-togethers with friends, all in the hopes that he'd forget about the Keyblade, forget about his former enemies, and forget about his journeys. But no matter how hard he tried, he always knew he never would.

After all, just because you try to forget your true self doesn't mean it's been erased.

Sora glanced down at his clothes-he was still wearing the black, red, and yellow outfit that had seemed to become a part of him as much as the Keyblade had-and he frowned. He wanted this next journey to provide him the fulfillment and freedom he desired, but he was scared. Terrified, really.

What if it didn't?

What if he couldn't find his smile ever again?

What if, in trying to live a normal life, he'd severed the connection between his conscious mind and his true self?

The thought horrified as well as frightened him.

"Sora," came a voice from behind the lost-in-thought Keyblade Master.

Sora turned his head slightly just as Riku came into view in the Keybearer's peripheral vision. The silver-haired boy was wearing the very outfit he'd worn on their last journey-the outfit that, like Sora's, defined him as not Riku, the most-wanted guy on campus at Destiny High, but as Riku, the Keyblade-wielding boy that had fought Xemnas alongside Sora exactly one year ago.

The seventeen-year-old answered his friend: "Riku."

"Have you decided?" Riku asked after stopped in the sand a ways away from the angled paopu tree branch that Sora now sat upon.

Sora continued to watch the setting sun. Though Donald and Goofy had been sent in King Mickey's personal gummi ship to collect he and Riku, Sora had still been given a choice.

"_Sora, it all leads to you," _the letter had said, "_and everyone is waiting for you. The only one who can heal their sadness is you."_

Behind the urgency in King Mickey's words, Sora had sensed his hidden message. He knew that it was up to him, as it was always up to the hero, to decided which path to choose. Once, Sora would have automatically know the correct path; would have automatically been able to discern which was the path of Light and which was the path of Dark. But now, now that he was no longer able to separate the Light from the Dark within himself, let alone in the rest of his life, it wasn't so easy to choose.

Human beings are all a little selfish sometimes, though.

"Yeah," he finally answered Riku with a curt nod.

"Sora."

Just then, Kairi dashed up, clad in her zippered pink dress, her elbow-length hair fluttering behind her like crimson ribbons. She clasped her hands behind her back, ignored Riku's presence, and turned to face Sora, her pretty eyes guarded yet soft.

Surprised at her sudden appearance, Sora jumped down from the branch. "Kairi!" he exclaimed as he did so. Then, he stopped himself from going to her, feeling apologetic for their argument earlier that day. He averted his gaze, shame coloring his cheeks beet red.

"I . . ." he started modestly.

Nodding, Kairi interrupted him with a soft, "Mm."

Sora looked up, his eyes going wide for the briefest of moments as it clicked in his mind that this was Kairi's way of forgiving him. Relief crashed over him in a wave, and, with a relieved smile, he crossed the distance in the sand that stretched itself between him and Kairi. He stopped a yard or so away, wary of her personal space, and looked into her eyes.

"There are still sad people," Sora said softly, referencing the King's letter. His gaze fell to the sand beneath their feet, and he found his thoughts once again slipping into slight sorrow. "And everyone's waiting." Then, at the thought of the immensity of the multiverse, and of the number of people he knew he could save, a look of fierce determination shone like a ray of light on his face. He brought his eyes to Kairi's once again, though he wasn't _really_ looking at her.

"I have to put back everything that's connected to me," he said passionately, eyes shining. Briefly, he caught sight of Riku's smirk, and he felt even more emboldened by his words.

Kairi gave Sora a weak smile, and the boy noticed with alarm that there were tears in her eyes. They shimmered like tiny jewels-tiny, deadly jewels that he never wanted to see sliding down her radiant cheeks ever again. Guilt at the fact that he was causing those tears flared up in the pit of his heart, and when he looked at Kairi again, he saw a different girl. She was much older, taller-though not as tall as his six-foot self-much more beautiful, but thin. Her clothes didn't hang on her right-they were loose in all the wrong places, the right places, and the places you wouldn't think to look at. Her collar and shoulder bones seemed too sharp, too angular.

She looked like she was wasting away.

But why?

The seventeen-year-old girl reached forward to grab Sora's hand, and he felt little spark of electricity coursing through his veins at the touch of her soft skin against his calloused fingers. When she removed her hand, a familiar purple-and-gold start-shaped chain rested on his palm.

'_Oathkeeper . . .' _he thought to himself, imagining what the aforementioned Keyblade looked like.

"Hurry back," she said softly, her voice cracking slightly.

There was a split second of Sora staring down at the sacred keychain in his hand before something came over him and he threw his arms around Kairi's body. He held her tightly, resting his cheek on top of her head and relishing in the feel of her rapid heartbeat against his chest. She slipped her own arms around his waist and hugged him back, obviously beside herself with surprise. Sora squeezed his eyes shut, wishing that he could overcome his fears and allow her to come with them on the gummi ship-he'd hated being apart from her, but he'd hated the feeling of knowing that she'd been kidnapped by his enemies for his sake. He didn't know if she'd be safer with him or on the Island-his head told him to leave her there . . . But his heart was screaming at him to take her with him, where he could watch over her every living moment.

But then came that voice.

That little, tiny voice in the back of his mind that told him to give it up; he wasn't worthy of a princess so pure.

He believed it every time.

"All right, all right," Riku finally scowled in mock annoyance. "You two are grossin' me out."

At Riku's rather embarrassing words, Sora let go of Kairi as fast as if she'd been steaming hot. His face burned bright red, and he dashed over to Riku purely for the sake of punching him in the upper arm.

Hard.

The six-foot-three boy winced, hissed in pain, and glowered down at his friend.

"Really, Sora?" he groaned. Then, he added in a mumble, "Sometimes, I think you don't know your own strength . . ."

Sora couldn't help the smirk that spread across his face, and he realized in that moment how excited he was for the coming journey. Even though he was sad to be leaving Kairi behind without knowing whether or not he was coming back, he was happy to be going on a journey with Riku that _didn't _involve him being Sora's enemy, and _didn't_ have Sora searching all over the multiverse for him. You could say Sora was just excited to spend some time with his best friend, and to leave the islands in search of other worlds _together_. Like they'd originally planned.

He turned and gazed around at the Play Island. He started at the docks, where all of their little boats were tied up, and then moved to the old shipwreck that was as much a part of the island as the geography of the Earth they stood upon. He remembered sparring with Tidus on the deck of the ship numerous times. He kept looking, his eyes passing over the thick trees and the treehouse, and the waterfall, the freshwater pond, the entrance to the Secret Place, all the way around to the area they stood on now.

This was home.

He glanced over at Riku, who gave him a look that told Sora Riku would miss it all, too.

"We have a duty-_you_ have a duty, Sora," Riku said gently, placing a hand on Sora's shoulder. "You _need_ to do this."

Sora nodded once, and then turned to take in the beauty of his home one last time.

He was gonna miss it, but Riku was right: he did need to do this. And not just because he was restless-because he was a hero to people all over the multiverse. By taking up the Keyblade and slaying not only Ansem, but Xemnas as well, Sora had silently agreed to _be_ their hero, and he couldn't go back on his word. Why?

Because a hero _never_ breaks a promise.

_Never._

"You guys read-WHAA-?"

_CRASHHHH!_

Sora, Kairi, and Riku's heads simultaneously turned and they all watched in silent surprise as Goofy came tumbling out of the now-broken door to the Seaside Shack, followed by an angrily-squawking Donald Duck, and a rather large cloud of downy white feathers. The two old friends landed on each other, sprawled out on the sandy ground and groaning in pain.

"Looks like _someone's_ eager to see us," Kairi managed to say through her sudden fit of giggles.

Sora smiled and rushed over to help his friends up. When they were all standing and had calmed down from the amusement of the whole situation, Donald finally spoke.

"All right, so are you guys ready to leave?" he asked in his quacking voice.

"Yep," Sora said.

"Uh-huh," Riku agreed. Then, he held up his hand. "There's just _one_ problem. I actually need Sora and Goofy's help with this one. You, too, Donald."

As Riku led them away to the treehouse, no one-not Donald, Goofy, Riku or Sora-noticed the unbearably thin seventeen-year-old girl with the impossibly-long sheet of vermillion hair toss off her baggy pink dress, run into the Seaside Shack wearing nothing but a black string bikini, and dash across the beach on the other side of the island, making a beeline for the gummi ship.

* * *

_**"He made me feel . . . Like I had a heart."**_

If you've ever been scared, try to remember how it feels. Try to imagine the way your heart beat faster, and the way your throat seemed to get dry faster than normal. Try to place yourself in the same spot you were in when you were scared the _most_. Bring forth the memory, and relive it. Remember everything about the moment-the speed of your adrenaline, how you squeezed your eyes shut to block everything out, and even the way your blood felt like it had turned to icy sludge inside your body. Try to remember how hard your body was shaking, and the way your legs felt like they were about to give out on you. The sweat on your brow, beading above your top lip as well. The shallow breathing that seemed too loud for the silence-that scared silence that seemed to ensconce you in its chilly, wicked embrace.

Now multiply those feelings, and you'll understand exactly how terrified Kairi felt, standing in the middle of the King's gummi ship's bathroom, waiting with bated breath as the ship lifted off, picked up speed, broke the atmosphere barrier, and shot off on its way to Disney Castle.

Kairi turned to face the mirror and stared at her pale face in her reflection. She even _looked_ scared. Gulping, the bikini-clad girl splashed a bit of water on her face, patted it dry with the hand towel that on the metal rack above the toilet, and then began to to assess herself as she always did when she looked in the mirror.

It began when she was still waiting for Sora's return, one day, in the changing rooms after PE. Kairi had retreated to the showers to change back into her uniform when all-of-the-sudden, Selphie had pranced half-naked into the stall to ask to borrow her deodorant. At the time, Kairi's memories of Sora had still been fuddled, so when Kairi hadn't been able to take her eyes off of the way Selphie's ribs just slightly showed, the poor redhead had vowed that day not to stop losing weight until her ribs could be played like a xylophone, her hips bones jutted out like cliffs, and the bones of her spine danced a graceful line down the center of her back. She had known that she was doing it for _someone_, she just didn't know _who_.

But now she did.

"One . . . Two . . . Three . . ." Kairi murmured, trailing the tips of her slender fingers across her ribs. She ran her hands down across her stomach, which seemed to cave in ever-so-slightly, what with how sharply her hip bones jutted out. Right now, Kairi looked thin, but not _too_ thin-like she was on the _verge_ of being too thin. Luckily, her swimsuit still fit, though it was _kind-of_ baggy, but if she lost any more weight, everyone would notice.

Sadly enough, that was what Kairi wanted.

True, Kairi wasn't eating on purpose. True, Kairi felt like this was the only way for her to control her life, which had seemed to take a mind of its own. True, she felt utterly and completely useless. But she'd be damned if she let herself spiral into a state of pointlessness, living each day in complete and utter despair and doing absolutely nothing except waiting. She wouldn't resign herself to a life like that again. She _couldn't_.

And, you know what? So _what_ if she had the faintest idea brewing in her skull that Sora might like her more if she were skinnier? Sure, she was skinny already-naturally skinny from birth, actually-but all the other girls she knew were so short and tiny, and Sora's friends like Yuffie and Aerith looked like they were floating next to Sora, who was so tall and toned and had those piercing cobalt eyes that could stop the rotation of the moon in its tracks. Those girls could hold their own in battle, too. Kairi could swear on her life that if it were Yuffie asking to go with Sora on a trip to other worlds, he'd say yes in a heartbeat.

"_Sora_," Kairi could remember telling Sora all those years ago on the branch of the Paopu tree. "_Don't ever change._"

Was it so bad if _she_ had?

A quiet succession of tapping noises sounded out against the steel bathroom door, startling Kairi. She tore her eyes away from her reflection and crept closer to the door, placing her ear against it.

"Kairi?" Riku's voice hissed out. "Hurry up and let me in."

Relieved, the redhead pressed the button to open the door, and Riku slipped in. She allowed the door to slide shut, pressed the "unlock" button, and turned to look up at the silver-haired boy.

Riku grinned. "We did it! He believed the whole thing."

Kairi held up her hand, and Riku gave her a high-five. Then, she put on hand on her hip and smirked quite smugly. "Of course it worked. I'm surprised he wasn't suspicious that I was suddenly _okay_ with him leaving me behind."

Riku then sighed, and frowned. "I feel kinda bad for pulling the wool over his eyes, but . . . I really believe you're strong enough to keep up with us."

"Thanks, Riku," Kairi said, walking back over to the sink to play with her hair as a way to relax her nerves. Her fingers were quivering steadily, but she didn't think Riku noticed. If he knew how scared she was of Sora's reaction to seeing her on the ship, he'd be on Sora's side.

"I guess I feel bad, too," she said. "For lying to him and stuff, but . . . He wasn't being fair." She placed her hands flat on the counter and hung her head. "He wasn't."

"I know, Kairi," Riku agreed in a soothing voice. "Don't feel too bad. He just worries about you, is all."

The redhead glanced at Riku briefly, feeling a bit queasy. Though she knew that Riku was correct in his assumption that Sora worried about her, she was still scared of his reaction. In fact, she felt so guilty that she almost regretted stowing away on the gummi ship.

Almost.

"Okay, you'd better go," she urged her silver-haired friend, flashing him a disarming smile. "We can talk about all this when we get to Disney Castle."

He nodded and turned to leave, but then paused as if remembering something important.

"Say, Kairi?"

"Yeah?" she said, placing a hand against the countertop to stop her legs from giving out.

He frowned in her direction. "Do you think Sora's changed?"

Riku didn't know how right he was. Hearing the question aloud only seemed to confirm Kairi's fears and make her feel faint. Just the day before, she'd been wondering the same thing.

"I ask myself the same question every day, Riku," Kairi said softly, no trace of a smile on her pretty, pale face.

Riku heaved a sigh laden with all sorts of mixed emotions, and then left the bathroom. Kairi walked forward and locked the steel door, then found herself completely unable to stay upright. A sudden bout of weakness overcame her, sending her cascading to the linoleum floor, every limb shaking of its own accord.

_I'd thought the emptiness and the weakness associated with it had become commonplace__, _Namine's gentle voice rang out through the confines of Kairi's mind.

'_As if I needed to feel __**more**__ guilty, Namine,' _Kairi retorted. '_You know why I'm doing it.'_

_No, Kairi, I actually don't know why you are__, _Namine shot back in a high-pitched tone most uncharacteristic of the blonde memory witch. _Everyone thinks you're beautiful just the way you are-I'm sure if they knew you were doing this to yourself, they'd all tell you__._

Kairi closed her eyes.

"'Just the way I am'?" Kairi repeated out loud, slowly, as if savoring each word.

_Yes__._

Kairi remained quiet, both inside her head and out. Namine hated that Kairi starved herself, and hated it even more that the poor redhead had convinced herself this was what Sora wanted. It would do no good to argue with her blonde counterpart because she knew neither would win over the other.

It was just too bad that Namine's words had only served to worsen the situation.

'_Just the way I am . . . ?' _Kairi thought in the part of her mind that was blocked off to Namine. '_And what way am I, exactly?'_

* * *

**_"Is it that I'm not supposed to exist?"_**

Sora barely looked up when Riku entered the control room, so focused on flying the gummi ship that he didn't even care that Riku was there to relieve him of said duties. He was pondering what he was always pondering these days-the strange quotes and tidbits of lives lost that he had no clue about. He felt something lying in the recesses of his heart, watching, waiting for the perfect time to strike. But when was that perfect time? Who or what was waiting?

His brow furrowed as Riku physically shook him out of his reverie, and he stared up at his friend with a blank, owlish expression. Something was off about Riku-something he couldn't place. Or maybe it was just the thing; the thing was usually sleeping but lately, it had begun to stir and not even Roxas, who also shared the space in Sora's heart, had any idea how to stop it from waking up when it did.

"Hey," Riku said gently. "You should go get some sleep. Goofy and I will fly the ship."

Goofy rose from his seat and stretched, blinking sleepily at Sora. "Gawrsh, guys, I sure am tired myself. I think I'll go catch some Z's, too. Wake me when we get to the castle." With that, he walked over to the door, pressed the button, and walked into the elevator.

Sora shook his head at Riku. "No, I'm . . . I'm fine, Riku. I-"

"No, you need to sleep," Riku chuckled, ruffling Sora's unruly chestnut hair fondly. "You look terrible."

"Riku, we've only been in hyperspace for an hour, and I slept before we left," Sora insisted, ignoring Donald's irritated grumbles about having to fight off stray ships on his own while Riku and Sora tried to find a way to compromise.

"No, seriously, Sora-you have horrible under-eye circles, and you look like Death. Get outta here."

Sora sighed and, finally, complied, allowing Riku to grab his upper right arm and yank him to his feet. Riku had to continually shoo him away until Sora dragged his feet all the way to the elevator. As soon as he was inside the elevator car, however, his thoughts slipped back to where they usually were, contemplative and somewhat dark.  
The Keyblade Master stared down at his hands, only half-covered by fingerless gloves, and wondered just what capabilities they possessed. He'd done so many good, heroic things, and even things Darkness-oriented for the good of others. But were they capable of committing unspeakable evils? Was the thing inside of him waiting to lunge forward and force these very hands to kill and hurt and maim?

He didn't realize that his heart rate had picked up and that he was close to hyperventilating until the elevator doors dinged as they slid open. He found himself staring out at a short, narrow hallway-the living quarters and second floor of the gummi ship-and saw that Goofy was just exiting the kitchen. Goofy gave him a cheerful wave and, when Sora didn't wave back, he walked closer to see what was the matter.

"Can I ask you a question, Goofy?" Sora asked softly, still looking at his hands and the calluses that riddled his palms.

"Why, sure thing, Sora," Goofy said brightly, munching away at a full-sized carrot.

"Do I . . . Do I scare you sometimes?" He glanced up into his tall friend's eyes, imploring, searching for an answer in the beady black irises.

"Gawrsh, Sora . . . That sure is deep stuff." Goofy scratched the top of his head. "But no. You don't scare me. Why, you're one of the nicest, most honorable guys I know! A-hyuck!"

Sora felt something change within him, and his eyes stung for a moment. Something wasn't right about Goofy's answer. Almost as if . . . As if it were a lie. But Goofy wouldn't lie. Goofy never lied.

So why didn't Sora believe him?

"Th-Thanks, Goof," Sora said, struggling to put a smile on his heart-shaped face. He wanted to pat Goofy on the arm, but he felt his hands shaking with some sort of emotion; an emotion that he couldn't place.

"You're welcome, Sora." Goofy grinned. "I'm off to take my nap! See ya when we get to the castle!"

Sora nodded and watched Goofy walk down the hall to his bedroom. Then, he sighed and let his hands fall to his sides. It was no use contemplating such things as what if's and impossible situations. How could Sora scare Goofy? Was there something to be scared of? Was it that thing, that thing inside him, telling him to scare his friends? Had it come to that, and he'd just forgotten? Or would it come to that?

The tall, lithe boy hurried to his room, pressing the button to open the door. He looked down at the ground while he waited for the door to open, wondering about all sorts of things, and had just started to walk in when he ran into something. Or rather, someone ran into him. His quick reflexes allowed him to grab the person's elbows to keep them from falling down, but their momentum only caused them to fall into his chest. Sora's eyes widened in stages as recognition of the person he gripped dawned on his face.

"K-Kairi?" he gasped, his heartbeat completely shuddering to a stop and his blood turning to ice.

The wafer-thin girl pressed her hands against his chest and pushed herself out of his grasp. Sora now saw that she was wearing one of his shirts-a black sleeveless hoodie that was baggy and long on her tiny, emaciated frame-and he found that he couldn't take his eyes off of her terrified face.

"S-Sora . . ." she stammered, her hands shaking. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

"What are you doing here?" he demanded, still in too much shock to really register what was going on.

She tucked her bangs behind her left ear, her long, long hair scraggly and messy from running into him. She glanced down, her lengthy eyelashes dusting across her cheeks, and then bowed her upper body again and again, still repeating apologies.

Then, the words began to flow from Kairi's mouth, a constant babbling that made no sense, yet made all the sense in the world to him.

"I know you said I couldn't go, Sora, but I had to. I just had to. I didn't want to be alone, all by myself, waiting and waiting and waiting. What if you never came back? What if you died, and I was still just waiting?" Her entire body had begun to quiver, including her voice. Tears glittered like diamonds in her cerulean eyes, and when she looked up at him, she was begging for his forgiveness. "I'm so sorry I disobeyed you, Sora. I felt so confident before, but now that I see you, I'm just embarrassed and I feel guilty. I'm just . . . I lied to you, and Riku lied to you, and we both feel really bad about it. I'm sorry. I'm sorry!"

"Kairi, stop!" Sora cried, unable to take the incessant pleas coming from her lips. He placed one hand on the doorframe and the other on his forehead, slightly in his bangs, and scrunched his face up as if in pain. His head was pounding, and Roxas was trying to say something, but something was blocking him out and . . . And . . . And the thing was stirring within his heart-was it waking up?

Kairi's chin trembled, and she clenched her fists at her sides. The tears had collected on her eyelashes, framing them with their crystalline sadness, and something about her defenseless stance struck a chord within Sora's heart. He longed, in that one moment, to gather her up in his arms and comfort her, but he couldn't. He couldn't because she was standing in front of him, on the ship she wasn't supposed to be on, and because his heart was silently urging him not to touch her. Why? Because he didn't know what he'd do if he did.

He didn't know if he'd be able to stop himself from doing something terrible to her.

Kairi backed up slowly until the backs of her knees hist his mattress, forcing her to sit down on the end of it. She clasped her hands on her knees, bowed her head, and waited. Was she waiting for her punishment? Sora couldn't understand what she was doing-there was this damn pain in his head, throbbing, aching, singing a song of despair.

"Are you . . . Are you mad at me?" she asked in a small, small voice, refusing to look up.

". . . No," he said slowly, blinking rapidly against the headache. "I'm not . . . Mad."

Her eyes snapped up to his, confusion shimmering like firelight in her eyes. "You're . . . You're not?" she asked incredulously.

Sora took a step forward, feeling slightly wobbly. He slammed his palms against his closed eyelids, grunting in pain as something stabbed him from within, sending a lance of agony shooting throughout his whole body.

_'What . . . What is this . . . ?'_

"Kairi . . ." he gasped out, falling to his hands and knees on the floor as a painful shiver ran down his spine. The redhead gasped in alarm and knelt beside him, reaching out to place a hand on his right shoulder.

The thing awoke.

The Darkness inside of him reared up, completely eclipsing all that was Sora, and causing an inhuman change to overcome him. His eyes began to burn, and suddenly Kairi was screaming about them being yellow, and all he could think about was how to get her to be quiet. He pinned her down on the floor easily, and the burning feeling her pure skin caused when she touched him didn't seem to hinder him. She was pleading with him now, but he couldn't stop. He wanted desperately to move away from her, but he couldn't. The thing wouldn't let go.

Anti-Sora had come out to play, and he wasn't leaving until he was good and ready.

**"Is the little Princess sad that her knight's gone away?"** Anti-Sora hissed, his golden eyes flashing wickedly as the inky black Darkness spread rapidly across Sora's skin. Razor sharp claws curved their way out of the ends of his fingers, and he raked them down the sides of Kairi's arms. She cried out in pain and tried desperately to squirm away from their painful bite.

"Stop . . . !" she desperately pleaded as Anti-Sora took his delicious time unzipping Sora's hoodie from her frail body, stopping halfway.

**"Scream, scream, scream until you can't scream any longer,"** Anti-Sora giggled, leaning forward and hissing. His long, black tongue lashed out, licking a scorching hot path down the side of Kairi's arm, lapping up the blood that his claws had produced. She began to cry, helpless to stop Anti-Sora from lapping up her life's force like it was sweet candy.

Kairi's cries increased, morphing quickly into sobs of terror as Anti-Sora began to nibble on her ear. Her eyes were wild with unbridled fear; she was bewildered and had no idea what was going on, yet at the same time she knew. Oh, she knew, and she knew that it wasn't supposed to happen this way, and it wasn't supposed to happen with this . . . This monster.

Suddenly, the thought of who it was supposed to happen with caused the Light inside Kairi's heart to swell and pour out through her fingers. Anti-Sora screeched and scrabbled backward, away from Kairi as fast as possible. He crouched down a ways away, hissing menacingly at her as tendrils of Darkness wafted off of him like smoke. Kairi looked down at her glowing fingers in shock, unaware that these abilities had even existed. Thankfully, her mind seemed to have worked quickly, because she lunged forward and pressed her hands directly onto the left side of Anti-Sora's chest. Sora's Darkness-covered heart was instantly covered in Light, causing Anti-Sora to scream in agony. The Darkness receded deep, deep within Sora, until Kairi's Light forced it back into its slumber to wait for a new moment to strike.

As the Darkness began to melt away from his skin, Sora came slamming back into his body with a violent shudder, the cobalt irises of his eyes shining through the gold until he looked like himself again-until he was Sora once more. Upon seeing Kairi, he flew backward, away from her body, startling her and causing her to fall onto her back. He slammed into the wall of his room, gasping as if he'd just run a mile at a full sprint, and stared at Kairi with wide, horrified eyes.

What had he done?

"S-Sora . . ." Kairi whispered, struggling up into a sitting position and reaching her hand out to him. She stopped at the last moment, and pulled her hand back as she seemed to grasp the reality of what had just happened. The attempt to sort through her emotions was visible on her face, and Sora physically felt the pain of what he had done inside his heart.

"K-Kairi . . . What did I . . . ?" Sora smacked his own face with his hand, as if trying to reassure himself that he wasn't dreaming, and his sapphire-blue eyes filled with fright and self-loathing. His eyes roved over the deep claw marks he had inflicted, and he still tasted her blood on his tongue. "Oh, my fucking God . . ."  
Kairi couldn't speak. She just stared at Sora with wide, wide eyes.

Sora gulped. What would have happened? What would have happened if Kairi hadn't figured out how to save him? Would he have hurt her? Killed her, even? Or would he have robbed her of the most innocent part of her, leaving her with nothing but loneliness and despair?

"Stay there!" Sora cried out as she started to move toward him. He cowered against the wall, fear permeating off his very soul. "Just . . . Just stay. There."

"I'm sorry," Kairi whispered.

"No, don't apologize," Sora panted, still trying to catch his breath. He dragged his teeth across his bottom lip and a pained expression flashed across his face. He clenched his fists to stop the intense shaking that had started up, and squeezed his eyes shut. Flashes of what he had done to her kept creeping up inside his head, unable to be quelled by Roxas's usually superb abilities, causing the guilt to increase and increase until he felt like his entire body would burst.

"But-"

"Shut up," he muttered, more to the voices in his head than to her. "Shut up, shut up, shut up!"

A determined expression crossed Kairi's features and, ignoring Sora's protests, she crawled across the space dividing them, sitting beside him. He drew his knees up to his chest, looking for all the world like a lost child.

"It wasn't you," she said softly. Tentatively, she reached out to brush his hair out of his eyes, and he glanced over at her.

"Then who was it?" he murmured. Then, he held his hands up, looking from his palms, flecked with her dried blood, to her pale face. "Kairi, these hands . . . They're mine, and they hurt you." His voice cracked. "If it wasn't me, but it was my hands, then who was it?"

Kairi's hands were quivering as she placed them in Sora's, intertwining their fingers tightly. She pulled their clasped hands to her chest, and he felt her heart pounding rapidly against her ribcage. He wrestled with his emotions-he wanted to pull away, but at the same time, the skin-on-skin contact was something of an aphrodisiac. He felt like he'd crumbled into pieces, knowing that he'd hurt her, and just touching her-feeling her heart beat like this-was enough to start mending his broken soul.

"These are your hands," she whispered, holding his gaze with meaning in her eyes. "And these are mine. They're connected, just like our hearts."

"K-Kairi . . ." he spluttered, but she silenced him with a look.

She then said, "Can you honestly say that in this state of mind, you would willingly hurt me? Knowingly?"

"It's your blood underneath my fingernails, Kai," he replied bitterly, glaring down at their twined fingers.

Kairi leaned forward, surprising him by placing a lingering kiss on his cheek. She let go of his right hand and placed hers on his other cheek, almost as if holding him in place. He felt her eyelashes on his skin, like soft feathers.

She sat back, and he stared at her in awe.

"I trust you, Sora, with my life," she said softly. "It doesn't matter whose blood is on your hands . . . My blood-my heart-is yours."

Sora's eyes widened in stages and he tightened his hold on her hand and his now-free hand lifted to cup the left half of her face. When he touched her, he was surprised to see that she was shaking. His brow furrowed.

"Are you . . . Are you scared?" he asked quizzically.

"Not of you," she whispered.

The redheaded girl inhaled sharply as his hand trailed up through the lower layers of her hair and down the back of her neck, and she slowly closed her eyes. Curious, he traced a line down her shoulder, across her collarbone, and directly down the center of her bony chest where his sleeveless hoodie was half-unzipped, revealing her creamy white skin. She whimpered as his finger neared her breasts and tightened her grasp on his hand. Something about her involuntary shudders was enticing him to touch her more. This, however, was nothing like the hungry way he'd nibbled on her skin when Anti-Sora had taken over. No, this was something else, they both just didn't know what.

Just then, the gummi ship gave a lurch, and Riku's voice crackled over the ship's intercom.

_"Uhhhh, Sora and Goofy? I know you guys are sleeping, or whatever,"_ he said somewhat awkwardly, worriedly. "_But there's a problem with the ship's main engine, and for some reason the back-up engine isn't working. We're close to Disney Castle, but we're gonna land in Traverse Town so we can get Cid to take a look at it."_

Sora frowned and looked at Kairi.

"We'd better get up there, to the cockpit," he said, suddenly feeling extremely embarrassed about their proximity and his bold actions.

Kairi slowly dragged her eyelids up, looking strangely disoriented. She was breathing heavily, and still grasping Sora's hand awfully tightly. A blush tinged her cheeks somewhat prettily, and the two teenagers rose to their feet together. They started to leave the room, but Kairi's knees knocked together and she almost toppled forward. Sora caught her by the elbows, giving her an odd look.

"Careful," he said gently, amused at the fact that she was blushing even more. "You okay?"

"Uh . . . Yeah," she said, seemingly mortified. "I'm fine."

As he watched her scurry away down the hall to the elevator, Sora could swear the thing inside him was pleased.

* * *

_**"Darkness can not be destroyed, it can only be channeled."**_

The memories called her to day in and day out, singing their sad songs and weaving their poignant melodies into the air around her. Laying on her cot, tick-ticking away the composition's notes on the stone wall beside her head, she began to blur the line between fear and anticipation, tiring of the constant waiting. Her thoughts were filled with pictures of the boy who, even from the beginning, saw her for who she really was and who held her in his arms as she died.

It was said that Nobodies couldn't cry, but he had.

The raven-haired beauty was acutely aware of every single aching, pulsating bruise on her body. Each throb seemed to fall in tune with the cacophony that her memories produced, interlacing and zigzagging, and following the haphazard path that the music created. Her heart-shaped face seemed more beautiful in the moonlight that filtered in through her prison cell window, a reflection of the small place in her heart that was filled with nothing-literally nothing-but hope.

Xion sat up, the strap of her dirty, ripped tunic slipping surreptitiously down her arm. Her hair, long enough now to almost brush her elbows, seemed to blend in with the shadows. The only thing that stood about her was her eyes-those pure blue twin sapphires, set perfectly apart in her head, that seemed to burn the Darkness. So full of Light and spirit she was, that her mere presence was a warning to the Darkness.

Once, however, she had been a servant of the Darkness-a beacon to its evil plans and misdeeds.

Sometimes, visions of a redheaded girl that she couldn't remember would dance in front of her eyes, and small bursts of power would shoot out of her fingertips. It was these rare times that fascinated Infinite so, convincing him to keep her alive. While her re-birth had been a vast success, success was not what Infinite was looking for. Infinite had already perfected the art-he was trying to stomp out the kinks.

Footsteps echoing in the hall caused Xion to perk up and she was on her feet in an instant, hardly paying attention to how the room swayed and how empty her growling, crying stomach was. She slammed up against the cell door just as Seorax appeared outside her room. Her small hands curled around the bars, and she gazed happily into saffron-yellow eyes that gazed back curiously into hers.

"You always seem so happy to see me," Seorax said gently. "Your emotions are pure."

Xion looked down, thoughtful. True, the man was unnecessarily rough with her from time to time-for instance, earlier that day when he'd choked the breath out of her-but for the most part, Seorax had been kind. Seorax, too, was a Rebirth, but he was a Rebirth of another kind. He held a special place in Organization Zero that was not easily replaceable, due to the extremity of the abilities Seorax had been reborn with.

"You're my friend," Xion said decidedly, with an air of finality that could not be swayed. She gave Seorax a toothy grin and gripped the bars of her cell door even tighter.

Seorax's mouth turned upward in an amused smirk. He ran his fingers backward through his shoulder-length jet-black hair. Usually, he wore it in a ponytail with his bangs hanging low across his eyes, but tonight, he seemed more relaxed. In fact, instead of his usual black cloak, he wore a simple coordinate of black pants and a white shirt with a V-shaped neckline. He seemed taller than usual, and more imposing, but Xion wasn't afraid. She never feared Seorax-she just fought back.

"I'd say your feistiness has it's upsides," was all he said in reply to her remark, and then he waved his hand casually in front of the lock on her door. There was a loud clanging noise, and then Xion was able to easily slide the door open. She stepped out of the cell, a slight wind chill sweeping through the dungeon hall. The petite raven-haired beauty glanced down into the darkness of said hall, all the way to where the light from the nearby torch faded, and wondered just who else was locked up down in the dungeons with her.

Seorax looked her over somewhat disapprovingly. "You're getting too thin," he observed, rubbing his chin as he did so.

Self-consciously, Xion tried to tug the hem of her tattered prisoner's tunic down further. She knew it was no use trying to hide in front of Seorax, though. Despite what the rest of the Organization members liked to do to the "other girls" that lived in the castle, Seorax knew she was off limits. But that didn't stop him from roughing her up a bit. He got a thrill from giving her a good scare; sometimes even from seeing her cry. Perhaps it was her desperate need to be reunited with Roxas, as Seorax had promised he would help her do, that kept her from rebeling against him.

"Are we going to your room?" she asked casually as they headed down the dimly-lit, drab stone hallway to where Xion knew the stairs that led to the first floor of the castle were.

"Eventually," he murmured. "But first, Infinite wants to see you."

A pang of fear shot through Xion's heart, and she wrung her hands nervously.

"He does? How come?" she asked. It had been exactly two months since she'd stood at the feet of Infinite. Two months since her rebirth, where she'd found herself on her knees before her new master. Two months since she'd gained a heart and started to feel.

Two months since her greatest wish came true.

Seorax shrugged and took a cigarette out of his back pocket. "Something's happening tonight, and he said for me to bring you to see him before it did." He placed the cigarette in his mouth, and the murmured a small Fire spell around it, lighting it with ease.

Xion frowned, worried about what Infinite could possibly want with her. As far as she knew, he didn't want her dead. Yet.

When they reached the top of the stairs, Xion was forced to lean upon Seorax's side for support. Her body, deprived of food for the past few days, was unable to keep up with Seorax the way it used to be able to. Thankfully, he didn't push her away, and instead, waited while she caught her breath.

"Things are getting weirder around here by the day," Seorax said while they stood there, right at the entrance to a long, wide stark white hallway.

"Weirder?" Xion said, clutching a hand to her heart, which was beating unnaturally fast. She loved the feeling of it pounding against her ribcage, almost as if trying to escape. But she would never let it escape-she would never again go back to the unfeeling, pointless existence of a Nobody.

"It used to be just Kurix sending us on missions to document the behaviors of Unversed in other worlds, but lately, it's gotten a lot different. Now, he's got some of us out kidnapping virgin girls, some of us researching about the Keyblade Master, some of us finding out whatever we can about some war of Keyblades or something, and the rest of us are being sent out to assassinate random people like we're . . . Hitmen, or something." He looked troubled for a moment, pulling his cigarette out of his mouth and blowing a cloud of smoke outward. His golden eyes glittered angrily. "Nobody else can say anything about the assassinations because he's only got the Rebirths carrying out those missions. The other Nobodies just go out and do the other stuff. But it's frustrating-most of us Rebirths don't like assassinating people who, as far as we can tell, are innocent. And especially since we don't know why!"

Xion licked her lips and straightened. "Is it like, random people that you don't even know? Like, people on the streets? Or names?"

"We're given lists of names of people to kill in each world. We have to go to these worlds and kill those people, and then we have to bring their bodies back to the castle, and then drag them down to the Laboratory," Seorax went on to explain, waving his hands about to emphasize his annoyance. "It's stressful, to be honest."

They started to walk again, and Xion asked, "Well . . . What about the people collecting virgin girls? Why is that?"

"I don't know anything about that either. It's got something to do with everything else, though. Infinite doesn't work in crazy circles-he's very put-together." Seorax shook his head. "No, Infinite's got a plan. He's got a plan, and none of us are gonna see it coming-even from a mile away."

Xion fell silent as they walked, silently pondering the information Seorax had just given her. While she could admit to being curious and frightened about Infinite's "secret plan," she was still solely focused on doing what she needed to do to see Roxas again. She had no idea how this would be possible, since Seorax had already explained to her that Roxas had long since reunited with Sora's heart, but that miniscule place in her heart kept telling her that she'd find a way to be with him. She knew he didn't have a heart, but now, she knew a way for him to get one. She didn't know the logistics and technicalities of the art of Rebirth, but she knew that if it had worked for her, then it could work for Roxas, too.

They came to the Grand Hall soon enough, but Xion didn't really pay attention to the beautiful architecture of The Castle That Never Was, finding it to be exactly the same as it was in her past life. As usual, most of Organization Zero's members were lounging about, chatting amiably about their days. If there was one thing the members of Organization 13 and Organization Zero that Xion had noticed, it was that all of them liked to pretend they had hearts. Even she herself had fallen prey to the denial, not knowing that it was only hurting her worse to life a lie than it was to accept that her existence was accidental. Now that she had a heart, it was sad to see them all living the same lie she had once lived. She wished they could all be reborn, but she had no idea how that could come to be.

"You're awfully quiet," Seorax said as they crossed the gargantuan room, his voice echoing slightly off the high ceiling.

"Just thinking," she murmured, hands clasped in front of her. "I'm a little intimidated-seeing Infinite and all. I wonder what he wants . . ."

"Your best guess is mine, too," Seorax sighed, his cigarette finally exhausted. He tossed aside the butt, ignoring the annoyed sounds some of the more "tidy" Organization members made. He stopped in front of the door to the throne room, pausing to give her an encouraging twist of the lips. "You'll be fine; I'll be right there with you."

Xion smiled in reply, and they entered the room.

Infinite was definitely not the slightest of men. He was striking in that his muscular body seemed to dwarf all those that surrounded him at all times. That, coupled with his height and the fact that he was the leader of the multiverse's largest, most secret Organization, made Xion want to prostrate herself on the ground almost as soon as she stepped onto the red velvet carpet that led to the extravagant gold throne that awaited them at the head of the white marble room.

Seorax bowed on one knee before his leader, dragging the slightly dazed Xion to floor with him.

"Good evening, master," he mumbled reverently.

"Good evening, Seorax." Infinite's voice was frightening in the soft way it rolled down Xion's spine, caressing her with a gentle, dangerous embrace. A shiver went down her spine, and she suppressed it as soon as she felt Infinite's large almond-shaped violet eyes on her bowing form. "And good evening, Xion."

Xion let out a squeak of surprise, in disbelief that he knew her name, and chanced a look up at him. Though he wore the same cloak as every other Organization member-a cloak that she herself had once worn-he stood out more than anyone else in the room. And by "anyone else," Xion meant the random groups of two and three Nobodies that littered the throne room, watching Seorax and Xion's exchange with their master, conversing quietly amongst themselves.

Infinite stood up, his waist-length silver hair falling down his back like liquid silver, and gave Xion what she thought was supposed to be a disarming smile. Instead, it chilled her to the bone.

"So, Xion . . . I am told that you have a special . . . Place in this multiverse," he said calmly, stepping off of his throne and holding a hand out for her to take. She did so immediately, and, with ease, he swept her up to her feet. Her knees trembled as she gazed up into his amethyst eyes, struggling to understand what he meant.

"Um . . . S-Sir?" she stammered in a terror-filled voice. "I'm sorry, I . . . I d-don't underst-understand . . ."

Infinite smiled again, this time flashing a set of fearsome fangs that Xion had never before seen on a man. She stifled a gasp, at which he chuckled.

"No, I don't suppose you remember much of your old life, do you?"

"N-No," she said honestly, lowering her gaze to her feet. The only one she remembered clearly was Roxas. Everything else came to her in tidbits. Snippets of faces and places that she could never put names to. Quotes and songs and all sorts of random things that hurt her head to try and grasp at. She assumed it was the price a Nobody had to pay for the Rebirth, and the granting of their ultimate wish.

"No matter," he said, his heavy accent seeming to add to the smoldering effect of his voice. "We'll drag what we need out of you soon enough." He let go of her hand and walked back to his throne. He then sat down and fixed her with a hard glare.

"I'm sorry if she's angered you, master," Seorax gushed, seeing the look on his leader's face and panicking. He jumped to his feet, a pleading expression in his eyes. "I can take her to my rooms and punish her, if you'd like."

"No, that won't be necessary," Infinite chuckled, gesturing to one of the many Nobodies that stood idly by. It was a one of the one who kept their hood up, so neither Seorax nor Xion had any clue who it could be.

"This is Yexor," he stated with a slight tinge of amusement in his voice. "He will be your 'trainer', per se, for the next week."

"Trainer, sir?" Seorax queried, exchanging confused glances with Xion.

Infinite sighed, almost as if he'd explained this a hundred times over. "Xion will soon be joining the ranks of the Rebirths in Organization Zero. I need her to be trained specially by Yexor, for she is to carry out a mission that is of an extremely delicate nature in two weeks' time," he said in a bored tone. "She has memories that I need-memories that are keeping her alive in my castle."

Xion felt her heart jump and her eyes widened at his words. 'The memories of my past life . . . But why?'

"After we acquire these memories-which hopefully, Yexor's training can help us with do-Xion will be sent out on the aforementioned 'delicate mission', during which she will be acquiring information and studying a few old enemies' fighting techniques. I can't carry out any part of my plan until this mission is completed. Do you understand now, Seorax?"

"Yes, master," Seorax muttered, seeming thoroughly angry.

That scared Xion.

"Xion!" Infinite suddenly barked, causing Xion to once again fall to her hands on knees on the carpet.

"Y-Yes, sir?" she stammered, startled and afraid.

"Tonight, you will stay in Seorax's room," Infinite said with a slight yawn. "Every night after, however, you will stay in Yexor's room. Your time will mostly be spent under Yexor's care, until the memories I require have been extracted. You may go; enjoy your final night with your . . . Friend."

"F-Final night, sir?" she dared to ask.

Infinite smirked. "Why, you didn't think I didn't know, did you? My minions are allowed to take a favorite woman to their rooms whenever they please-I myself do so occasionally-but now that I have need of you, I want you under my jurisdiction at all times and always." He turned his severe gaze on Seorax, who was no longer bowing and staring up at his leader in disbelief.

"Seorax has not bed you even once, and it has only caused my suspicions to arise. Therefore, I will grant you one last night together. After this, you will see each other no more unless otherwise specified by Kurix, should he assign you two on a mission together."

Xion felt sick to her stomach. Seorax was her friend. Why would he bed her? Why would he treat her like the other girls they captured from other worlds for their own pleasure and amusement? And just what did Infinite have in mind for her? How did he think he was going to "extract" her memories? Something about the way he'd said made her feel uneasy about the whole situation. And without Seorax, would she ever be able to see Roxas again? Xion didn't want to join the Organization, and she didn't want to be in league with the Darkness. What she wanted . . . Was Roxas.

"Leave me," Infinite said, leaning back in his throne and beckoning Yexor closer so that he could whisper a few things in his ear.

Seorax scrambled to his feet and gathered Xion close enough to him that she could smell the nicotine from his cigarette on his breath. She was trembling slightly, but then again, so was he. Instead of them leaving the throne room by foot, Seorax opened up a Dark Corridor, and they entered it, each with their own thoughts about what would transpire in the room on the other side.

* * *

**A/N: Hope you enjoyed~**_**  
**_


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Whoot! I'm back with chapter 3! This one is long, guys, so be prepared. Also, there's some borderline M-rated content, so I'll leave it up to you to let me know if you think I should up the rating of the fic yet :p Enjoy~~**

* * *

"_**I'm sorry . . . I might not make it back as soon as I thought. But I promise I'll be there, one day, to wake you up."**_

Kairi peered up and down the cobblestone road before crossing it to stand in front of the pastry shop. Traverse Town was much bigger than she remembered it, now that Sora had restored the world to its former glory. There were more people now-they came from all over, searching for the togetherness of their old worlds. And find it they did, whether it be on Sunday mornings for church or at the town's school functions, "togetherness" seemed to be Traverse Town's motto.

Nowadays, Traverse Town had a distinct 1800's Earth feel to it, with women dressed in corsets and petticoats and men in their tailored suits and frock coats. It seemed like everywhere Kairi went, she felt out of place, what with only being clad in Sora's hoodie. She was currently headed to the dress shop to get fitted for a nice gown to wear while they stayed in Traverse Town. There was to a be a town gathering in some sort of grand showroom in the Sixth District, and Sora was the "guest of honor." They were headed to Disney Castle afterward, and Donald had mentioned a feast and a ball, so Kairi knew a dress from Traverse Town would be perfect for both events.

"Kairi, wait up!"

Feeling somewhat awkward from all the horrified stares she was getting at her attire, Kairi was extremely grateful to see Riku come jogging up. He'd changed his outfit, and now wore a simple coordinate of black breeches tucked in to black leather boots with wide brims, and a tailored, double-breasted, knee-length black waistcoat that was buttoned all the way up to the base of his neck. Underneath the waistcoat, he wore a white shirt with puffy white sleeves that tightened to his wrists, and a silver cross pendant on a leather cord. His silver hair was pulled into a low ponytail at the base of his head, his bangs hanging out to shroud his face.

"What're you doing here?" Kairi asked, unconsciously moving closer to Riku's side. Her mind was a bit addled, the girl having been deep in thought about the Light that had come exploding out of her body and heart just hours before. "I thought you were helping fix the ship?"

"I don't pretend to know the ins and outs of gummi ships," Riku laughed, waving his hand dismissively. "Besides, I figured we could talk for a bit before we have to go. Where are you off to?"

"I'm getting a dress," she informed him. Then, she gestured to her clothes. "Can't really walk around in Sora's jacket all day."

"Speaking of Sora," Riku said somewhat loudly, placing his hands respectfully behind his back, much like the other men that were bustling about the town. "When did he catch you on the ship? What did he say? He didn't even seem fazed when I saw him."

Kairi paled, thinking of what had happened-or rather, what had _almost_ happened-in Sora's room on the ship. She debated giving Riku the details, but then didn't know how he'd react to knowing that Sora had a Heartless side of him. She doubted that he even knew.

"_Is the little Princess sad that her knight's gone away?"_

A shiver ran down her spine at the memory of Anti-Sora's chilling words. She could still feel him on her skin, the Darkness sizzling and burning into her. She never wanted to experience that ever again, as long as she lived.

Riku noticed her silence and made his own inference. "Did he yell at you?" he asked quietly, placing a hand on her shoulder and stopping her.

Kairi kept her gaze lowered and clasped her hands to her chest. She shook her head. "N-No! Sora would never . . . Yell at me." She knew that was a lie even as it flew from her lips. "He just . . . He didn't say anything."

Riku scrutinized her for a moment before saying, "Really? Nothing at all? I thought he'd get really mad . . ."

"Nope," Kairi said, feeling emboldened by Riku's blind faith in her words. She lifted her eyes from the ground and flashed him a bright smile. "He was actually kind-of relieved to see me. So . . . Let's go get that dress!"

As she turned and started to walk away, a new bounce in her step, Riku caught her wrist and yanked her around to face him. She gasped as he grabbed the side of her hoodie and tore it to the side, revealing the bruise on her shoulder from where Anti-Sora had bit her. He shot her a look, and then lifted her arm up, looking pointedly at the claw marks that had just started to scab over.

"That was me; I did that," she said quickly, tugging her arm back and rubbing her bruised neck awkwardly.

"Do you think I'm stupid, Kairi?" Riku growled. "He did this to you, didn't he? Christ, I didn't think he'd get _that_ mad. I'm gonna kill him."

"No, it wasn't him!" Kairi protested as Riku turned and started to storm off back to Cid's. She darted forward, a tiny little redheaded thing, and latched onto his arm. "Riku, please!" she cried, not caring if she made a scene. "_It wasn't him_!"

Riku finally stopped trying to shake her off of him, and his face softened. He let go a heavy sigh and faced her, inspecting her arm wounds again.

"Well," he grumbled, "Quite frankly, it doesn't look like any human could have made these marks. They look like claw marks, to be honest."

"It wasn't him," she repeated, her eyes wide and pleading. "He'd never hurt me. Sora would never hurt me."

Riku narrowed his eyes suspiciously, letting her arm slip out of his grasp. "Kairi, why would you do something like this to yourself?" he demanded gently.

"I'm . . . I was . . ." She searched her mind for something as close to the truth as she possibly could. "I was really sad," she said lamely.

At least it was half-true.

Riku frowned. "Sad? Kairi, somebody who was just 'sad' wouldn't do something like this to themselves. Why would you do something so terrible?"

Kairi found that his intense, searching gaze was too much for her, and she began to cry. She shook her head wildly. "I don't know," she sobbed, prompting Riku to pull her into a gentle embrace. "I don't know."

"Okay, _tell us_ next time you're feeling 'sad,' Kai," he said, smoothing her hair back from her splotchy, tear-stained face. "Okay?"

She nodded, sniffling and wiping her eyes. "Yes, Riku."

"Do you promise?" He raised his eyebrows in question.

"Promise." She gave him a weak smile, and he grinned in reply.

"Now, why don't we head over to the dress shop?" he said brightly. "There really isn't much we can do for those wounds anyway, since they've already scabbed over. Hopefully they won't scar."

Kairi held onto Riku's hand as they walked, much like a child would their father. She was distinctly aware of how tall he was, and how small she'd gotten. It made her feel slightly giddy, knowing that she was tiny enough now to look like Riku's _daughter_, and Riku was only eighteen!

"You seem happy," he said with a fond smile after a while of walking and looking at all the shops and women in fancy dresses.

She beamed up at him. Her reason for happiness was morbid, but it was a form of joy all the same. She couldn't very well _tell_ him why she was happy, though, and judging by Namine's annoyed grumblings inside her head, Namine wasn't going to either. So, to please her irritated Nobody, Kairi said chipperly, "I have a secret."

"A secret?" Riku looked confused. "Good or bad?"

Kairi squeezed his hand and began to skip alongside him. "Someone likes you."

Riku stared at her blankly for a moment before he rolled his eyes. "Come on, Kai; we aren't in grade school. If you know someone that likes me, you can tell them to tell me themselves."

She wrinkled her nose and said, "She can't tell you because she doesn't have a physical form."

Riku looked thoughtful for a moment, no doubt racking his brain for an idea of who it could be. Kairi watched him carefully, simultaneously waiting to see how long it took Namine to realize what she had just said to Riku.

Yes, it was true. Namine liked Riku. In fact, she'd liked him for quite a while now. She hadn't said anything to Kairi about it, but Kairi couldn't pretend _not_ to notice the way her heart quickened whenever she saw Riku. Now, Kairi was pretty darn sure she herself didn't like Riku, so who else could be making her heart beat like that whenever Riku came close? You put two-and-two together, and what do you get? Namine.

_Kairi, what the Hell did you just do__? _Namine screeched in a panic.

Riku's eyes widened suddenly, and he pulled his hand out of Kairi's grasp. "Wait . . . You mean . . . ? Oh. _Oh_."

_Wait, what does he mean by that__?_

Kairi smiled up at him innocently. "She's liked you since last year or so."

"But . . . What about Roxas? I thought . . . _What_?" He seemed in absolute disbelief, his aquamarine eyes shaking with bewilderment. Apparently, he wasn't used to girls liking him.

"Roxas is her dear friend," Kairi explained. "And it's obvious that Roxas is interested in someone else, we just don't know who. But no, I'm pretty sure she likes _you_, Riku."

"She . . . She _couldn't_. I mean . . . Really?" A shy smile spread across his face, and Kairi couldn't help but giggle. She'd never seen Riku looking so bashful before.

"Uh-huh," she nodded excitedly.

"Well, tell her I said . . . Thank you, I guess," he said uncertainly, seeming almost timid in the way he looked at her. Almost as if he were trying to find Namine inside the depths of Kairi's cerulean irises. She blinked owlishly up at him, wondering if he even remembered what Namine looked like.

"Can she . . . You know, separate from you at all?" Riku asked slowly as they began to walk again.

Kairi shrugged. "We haven't tried. I don't think Roxas and Sora have tried either. I don't know if it's even possible."

"Oh," Riku said with a somewhat dismayed look on his face.

Kairi looked up at him again, smirking slightly. "Don't worry," she said, patting his hand kindly. "When we get to Disney Castle, I'm sure the King will know something."

Riku nodded a little bit, and soon, they were at the dress shop.

"All right, so Sora's paying for this one," he grinned, holding up a black leather wallet with a silver crown stitched onto the front.

"He is?" Kairi asked incredulously, her hand poised over the handle of the shop's door.

"Lifted this off him while he was bent over the control panel in the cockpit," Riku snickered. "I'm sure he won't mind, anyway. He likes to get you stuff."

"He's never bought me anything _before_," Kairi gushed, a hand going to her cheek to hide the blush that had appeared there.

"Well, consider this his first gift," Riku smirked. "Honestly, Kai, he's not gonna _care_. Besides, he owes me."

"For _what_?" Kairi contested. "We're the ones who lied to _him_ about bringing me onto the ship!"

"I know, but you're pretty, so he owes me."

"Riku, that doesn't make any sense!" Kairi wailed, her blush deepening. "And you _know_ it."

Riku grinned again, reached around her, and pulled open the door. "Just come on," he said, jerking his head toward the inside of the shop. "Sora's gonna love the way you look in this style of dress, anyway."

As she walked in, she distinctly heard him mutter, "Although I'm sure he likes the way you look half-naked and in his clothes . . ."

Ignoring him, Kairi waved cheerily at the dumbstruck store clerk.

The young woman was wearing a simple high-waist white dress with long sleeves, her blonde hair pulled up into a loose chignon at the top of her head. Her pretty blue eyes viewed Kairi cautiously for a moment, before they settled on Riku, the tall, handsome man behind her. Then, she smiled brightly.

"Shopping for your wife today, sir?" she asked with a bright, disarming smile.

"Nope," Riku said, ruffling Kairi unruly mop of elbow-length crimson hair. "My best friend. As you can see, she needs a dress. A couple, actually."

"Riku, a couple? These dresses are expensive!" Kairi hissed, clasping her hands in front of her as if in prayer. "I don't wanna bleed Sora dry."

"Did you say Sora?" The clerk put aside the box of ribbons she was using to decorate some parts of the store and weaved her way through dresses on stands to stand in front of the two of them. "As in . . . The Keyblade Master Sora? The one who's come to town tonight?"

"Um . . . Yes," Kairi squeaked nervously.

The girl screamed happily and grabbed Kairi hands. "You must be the woman he's courting!" she cooed, wiggling her eyebrows. "It's common news-he saved Traverse Town in his search for you across the multiverse."

Riku gasped. "You know about the other worlds?"

The woman waved a dismissive hand. "Of course I do. Everyone in Traverse Town knows about the hero who rushed across the worlds to rescue his Princess!" She fluttered her long eyelashes dreamily. "After all, the people of Traverse Town come from other worlds daily, and in droves. We're building new cottages and apartments every other day to accommodate them."

"Interesting," Riku said with a small smile. "It's kind-of nice to see the effect Sora's had on the worlds he's saved."

"Mm-hm," Kairi agreed. "But no, miss, Sora isn't-"

"Oh, call me Jesebelle," she cut in. "Any friend of Sora's is a friend of mine! And you can have a dress on the house!"

"On the-?" Kairi spluttered. "But these dresses are so fancy! And beautiful!" she fingered the sleeve of a nearby dress, in which pearls were sewn in to the lace overlay of the satin grey fabric. "I could never take such a present!"

"Oh, please," Jesebelle insisted. "My father is the mayor-he'd most likely be happy to gift you with one of our handmade dresses."

"You _make_ all these?" Kairi wondered at all the magnificent gowns in the room, surprised at the amount.

"Yes, me and my mother do," Jesebelle told her. "And, as soon as I saw you, I knew of the _perfect _gown for you . . ."

When Jesebelle returned, she was carrying the most beautiful dress that Kairi had ever laid eyes on. In Jesebelle's arms rested a deep emerald satin dress with a sloping heart-shaped neckline and short, puff-sleeves made of shirred emerald-green chiffon not much lighter than the green of the gown. Delicate white satin ribbons laced the back of the dress, tying in a slightly large decorative bow right at the top of her buttocks; the front of the bodice of the dress was plain compared to the rest, but the subtle lace that lined the plunging neckline of the gown seemed to make up for it, coupled with the elaborateness of the skirt and the lacing at the back. The pointed waistline gave way to a chiffon overlay that matched the puff-sleeves and covered the top of the bell-shaped skirt. The skirt was pulled up at the bottom, all around the hem of the skirt of the gown, by white bows that revealed the deep green satin of the majority of the gown. The hem of the overlay was shirred, much like the sleeves, and the main skirt was about two inches shorter than the lace petticoats that were to be worn underneath the dress. Said petticoats were stark white, reminding Kairi of the fluffiness of a cloud.

"Wow," Riku marveled, reaching forward to smoothe his hands over the silky fabric. "I mean, _wow_." He peered closer at the tiny emeralds that had been woven into a thin lace that covered the front of the bodice and the part of the main skirt that could been seen in the cutaways that the bows holding up the chiffon overlay created-the emeralds had been almost nonexistent upon Kairi's first inspection.

"This is . . . For me?" Kairi gasped, her hands shaking as she forced herself not to reach out and touch the dress.

Jesebelle beamed at her. "Yes, of course. Like I said, you're a friend of Sora. Consider this a gift from the town; not just me."

"Be grateful, Kai," Riku said, giving her a reassuring smile. He placed a hand on her lower back and pushed her toward Jesebelle and the beautiful gown she held. "You're gonna look great in it."

"So you accept?" Jesebelle inquired hopefully.

Kairi chewed her bottom lip and nodded slowly.

"Fabulous!" Jesebelle cried out happily, turning and walking over to the single fitting room stall that sat in the back of the shop. She walked past it, went into the back for a moment, and then came back carrying a long, stiff crinoline in one hand and a white corset in the other.

"Shall we?" she asked enthusiastically, gesturing to the fitting room with her head.

Kairi nodded again and walked to the fitting room with Jesebelle, pausing briefly before she entered. If there was one place she hated more than any other place in the entire multiverse, it was a fitting room. Why? Because it was the only place where she was forced to undress and reveal all of her imperfections. It was the only place where she was forced to look at how horribly hideous her body was.

It was the only place where Sora's healing gaze couldn't reach her, and the only place where she felt completely and utterly alone.

_Please, Kairi, just be happy, okay__? _Namine pleaded from within as Kairi slowly, painfully unzipped Sora's hoodie from her body and untied the strings of her bikini. She hated to see Kairi so unhappy-after all, they were her emotions, too, and if Kairi was sad, then so was Namine. _You're beautiful, so don't be sad__._

Kairi didn't reply to her, and instead, tried her best not to pull a face full of distaste and self-hatred as Jesebelle turned around from preparing the clothes for Kairi to wear.

"Now," she said matter-of-factly, "wearing a dress like this takes some getting used to, so don't expect it to be a walk in the park. A lot goes in to making them, therefore a lot goes in to wearing them." She talked as she worked, helping Kairi into a dark, forest green satin chemise that fell to the girl's knees. She stopped briefly to stare at Kairi's thin, almost emaciated frame, frowning slightly before shaking her head and turning to pick up the crinoline. As she pulled it on over Kairi's head, she continued.

"The men aren't going to be able to stop looking at you tonight, so you make sure you stay with the Keyblade Master, or else they're going to think you're one of the young maidens waiting to be courted," she advised. Giving Kairi a pointed look in the mirror, she held up the corset.

"I'd also advise being careful who you talk to," Jesebelle said. "Lift your arms."

Kairi did as she was told and Jesebelle wrapped the corset around her body, threading the thread through the holes in the back. Kairi could feel the corset getting tighter with each filled hole, and she briefly wondered just how tight this thing was going to get.

"Why?" Kairi asked as the final hole was filled and Jesebelle grabbed the end of each thread in her hands.

"Why, because of the sickness," Jesebelle said as if it were the most common knowledge in the multiverse. Then, without warning, she pulled the laces so tight that the wind was completely knocked out of Kairi, and the redhead was seeing stars.

"Oh, wow," she managed to gasp out.

"It helps to take short, shallow breaths," Jesebelle whispered with a cheeky smile-a secret between girls. "And look! Your waist is considerably smaller! We'll measure it when we get you completely dressed."

Kairi felt a bit dizzy for a moment and she rested a hand on the mirror, placing her other hand palm-first on her stomach. It definitely was difficult to breathe, but not impossible. She doubted she'd be able to slouch at all in this dress.

Looking upon her body's new hourglass-like silhouette in the mirror, Kairi was absolutely shocked. She had never seen a waist so tiny in her entire life. Her waistline now had to be, at the _most_, 18 inches. At the _most_. To say that she was dumfounded would be an understatement. "In awe" would be a bit more appropriate, but still wouldn't do her feelings justice.

Namine, however, wasn't too pleased at Kairi's joy at looking so tiny. She wished that Kairi could see just how sickly she looked, and how a 18-inch waist for someone her height was unnatural, even in a corset, but she knew Kairi never would. Or, at least, it would take quite some time before she regained her confidence.

"Anyway," she said as she helped Kairi into the petticoats. "As I was saying, you've got to be careful. If you catch the sickness, there's no cure. You'll end up huddled in the Tenth District with all the rest of them, waiting to die."

Over the next few minutes, Kairi and Jesebelle worked together to get her into the dress, and when it was on, Jesebelle applied the finishing touches by tying the bow in the back. She yammered on and on about Sora's "heroic deeds" as she did so, but Kairi didn't hear a thing she said. She couldn't stop thinking about this "sickness" that Jesebelle spoke of. Where had it come from? What kind of illness was it? Was it airborne? Is that why she told her to stay away from those who were infected?

_You look great, Kairi!_ Namine gushed.

Kairi wrinkled her nose, as if not wanting to admit to anything. Despite her own distaste of herself, she _did_ look great. The corset and dress combined did indeed give her a tiny waist, and they even pressed what little cleavage she had up so that it _almost_ looked like she had breasts that could spill out of the top of the dress at any moment. The sloping neckline and shoulders of the bodice showed off her jutting collarbones quite nicely, and the emerald green offset the blaring red of her hair quite nicely. She turned to view the dress from behind, quite pleased to see how the silhouette she saw at the front stayed true in the back, giving her a true hourglass figure.

"What do you think?" Jesebelle asked, fluffing Kairi's long, long hair a bit. "Get a comb through these tangles and maybe put it up, and it'll show off your beautiful shoulders quite nicely."

"I like it," Kairi said, at a loss for words. The gown was just so gorgeous . . . She felt unworthy of such beauty. The way the emeralds glittered with each and every turn . . . The gentle chiffon overlay and girly white bows on the skirt . . . The way the petticoats fluffed out the skirt just right, so that it wasn't too puffy, but it wasn't anywhere near flat . . . The poor girl felt completely and totally unworthy of the dress.

"Good," Jesebelle nodded. "Now, let's go show your friend out there . . ."

As Jesebelle steered her out of the fitting room, Kairi heard Riku smack himself on the forehead.

"Ah," he hissed in defeat, "I forgot to introduce . . . My . . . Self . . . _Holy shit, Kairi!_"

Kairi felt a hot blush creeping up her back and staining her cheeks and, clasping her hands in front of her, she bowed her head to escape his awed, wide-eyed stare. She couldn't help but wonder how would Sora react, if this was how Riku was reacting.

"Doesn't she look beautiful?" Jesebelle cried, grabbing one of Kairi hands, lifting it over her head, and twirling her around slowly. "The bow at the back of her hips adds just the right touch, especially with the bows at the bottom of the skirt, right?"

"Jeez, you look _great_, Kairi!" Riku spluttered. "Wait 'til Sora sees _you_."

"And now, to finish it off. You're a shoe size 6, right? You look like a 6." When Kairi nodded, Jesebelle smiled happily, rushing across the store. She came back holding a few things in her hand. "Boots, a parasol, and a fan. _Every_ girl in Traverse Town has these things. I'm never caught dead outside without them."

Kairi sat down on a nearby armchair, accepted the thin socks Jesebelle handed her, and then opened the box that held the shoes.

The boots that Jesebelle had given Kairi were black leather with double buttons made of tiny, round silver discs trailing up the front, all the way to her calves. They had rounded toes and a high arch, with a two-inch heel in the back. Kairi slipped them on and was instantly pleased. When she stood up, the hem of her petticoats and gown still swept the floor, but not as much as before.

"I'm not so short anymore," Kairi said happily, clapping her hands together. Then, she held out her hands for the parasol that Jesebelle had grabbed-a frilly, lacy emerald green beauty-and took the fan. When she pulled open the fan, she was surprised to see that it, too, was a lacy emerald green.

"A girl's got to match!" Jesebelle giggled.

Riku smiled fondly, placing his hands behind his back. "Well, thank you for your gifts, Jesebelle. And . . . I don't think we introduced ourselves properly . . . ?"

Jesebelle cocked her head to the side and looked Riku up and down. Then, she gave him the strangest of smiles-a smile that made Namine grumble with anger and jealousy inside Kairi's heart.

"No," Jesebelle said to Riku, holding out her hand in front of her for Riku to take. "I don't believe you did."

Take her hand he did, and he placed a soft kiss on the back of it, fixing her with the "Riku smile" that Kairi had seen many girls at school back on Destiny Islands faint over.

"My name is Riku," he said smoothly. Then, dropping Jesebelle's hand, he gestured to Kairi, his other hand immediately returning to hide properly behind his back. "And this is Kairi."

Kairi gave a small, shy wave, slightly amused at the exchanged between Riku and her new friend Jesebelle.

"And . . . I'll be seeing the both of you at the feast tonight?" Jesebelle asked. "For sure?"

"Sora told the mayor we'd be there when we arrived," Riku said, shrugging. "He's not one to break his word. And neither am I." He grinned at Jesebelle. "Save a dance for me tonight?"

Jesebelle batted her eyelashes and fanned herself with her hand. "Why, Riku, such a gentleman. Of course I will."

"Fantastic," he said. Then, he looked to Kairi with raised eyebrows. "Ready to go head back to Cid's?"

Kairi nodded again, and Riku took her hand. They said their good-bye's and thank you's and left the shop, each with a smile on their face.

* * *

"_**If the world is made of light and darkness... We'll be the darkness."**_

It seemed like every time Sora found himself alone with his thoughts, they began to circle around and around again. He asked himself those impossible questions that had no answer because he liked the feeling of questioning things that nobody usually questioned. As he laid there on his back, looking up at the small part of the gummi ship's engine that he was tinkering with, he started to wonder just what the heck had happened when he'd seen Kairi.

"_Are you scared?_" he'd asked her.

Her reply: "_Not of you_."

What did that mean? How could she be scared of Anti-Sora, and not be scared of him? They were one and the same. Anti-Sora was the dark part of his heart, which was just the same as _being _him. Of course, Sora hoped to God that she wasn't scared of him, but he wouldn't put it past her if she was.

A flash of her screams in his ears as he raked his claws down her arms appeared in his mind, causing him to freeze all movement in horror.

"Shit," he cursed as something zapped his finger in the tangled wires and he dropped the pliers he'd been using. He placed the tiny flashlight Cid had lent him in his mouth, light bulb facing up at the engine, and grabbed the pliers again.

_Maybe you're just nervous because of the feast tonight__? _Roxas suggested in a lazy drawl, sounding somewhat sleepy.

'_Why would I be nervous?' _Sora retorted, extracting a random blue wire from its place tangled around a red one.

_Well, for one thing, the dresses these women wear around here make them all look like they wear a triple fucking Z in bra size__._

'_Well, what would that have to do with me?' _His right eyes twitched as a small bit of oil dripped onto his cheek.

_Um, __**hello**__. Kairi went off to get a dress. Which means she's going to come back looking like she got five breast implants. Aren't you even the __**least**__ bit excited for that__?_

'_No, Roxas, because I'm not a pervert like __**you**__.'_

_I'm not the one who dreams of throwing a certain redhead __**naked**__ onto his bed __**every single night**__**-**_

'_**Shut. Up**_,_' _Sora growled, blushing a deep red at Roxas's snide comment. Roxas may have been kind-of a quiet person, but when he spoke, it was like he had turned off the filter on his mouth. He said whatever came to his mind, and he didn't care if it embarrassed Sora or not. Not like anyone could hear it out loud, though.

Finally done fixing the engine wires, Sora scooted forward until he was able to sit up. He looked around at Cid's gummi ship garage, marveling at all the gummi equipment he had stocking the shelves. He wondered what Cid had been up to the past couple of years-he hadn't been to Traverse Town since before he defeated Ansem. His business had certainly skyrocketed, what with all the people coming into town from other worlds.

Cid jumped down from the entrance of the ship, wiping his hands with a towel. He placed a new toothpick in his mouth, throwing out the old one. He'd removed his tan waistcoat and now stood before Sora in just the standard puffy-sleeved white shirt and black breeches. His boots, once dark brown, were now stained with oil in places, making them appear more black than anything.

"Didja get 'er done?" he asked Sora.

Sora nodded. "Yeah; just a few tangled wires. Did you figure out what was wrong with the control panel in the cockpit?"

"Yup," Cid replied. "The transmitter was out-yer engines were actually runnin' fine. The tangled wires were blockin' the information that the engine was tryin' to send to the control panel. Result: it tells ya that yer engine's out because it's not gettin' the info. Now that ya fixed the wires, though, it's all good."

"Then what took you so long up there?" Sora asked, standing up and dusting off his black shorts. He had yet to change, but he didn't know whether or not he would. The clothes of Traverse Town's time period were a bit . . . Strange to him. Riku looked dashing, though-not much different than Sora's old pal William Turner.

"Oh, I just upgraded yer lasers is all." He then shot Sora a pointed look. "One of ya's got to stop poundin' on the 'shoot' button. Ya blow through the power much faster that way."

Sora raised his hands in a defensive position. "Whoa, not me. Talk to Donald about that one-you know how his temper gets."

Cid chuckled. "Yeah, I do, actually. Anyway, ya'd better go get cleaned up and changed. Ya've got oil all over yer face, and the feast's tonight."

"So . . . I _have_ to change?" Sora pouted, crossing his arms over his chest.

Cid rolled his eyes. "Such a teenager. How old are ya ag'in? 12?"

"Cid!" Sora cried, punching him in the arm, causing him to wince. "I'm 17!"

"Jeez, kiddo," Cid grunted, rubbing his arm in pain. "Ya _really_ don't know yer own strength, do ya?"

Sora smirked. "So Riku has told me."

Cid looked at him incredulously. "Cheeky!" he hissed, reaching out to ruffle Sora's hair violently. The two of them messed around for a bit before a knock came at the door to the garage. They both looked up to see Goofy standing there. He wore an outfit much like Cid's, only his sleeve cuffs spilled out at the ends of each wrist in a much more frilly manner.

"How's the ship comin' along?" he asked brightly. "Donald sent me to come ask when we were leavin'."

"Well, not until the feast is over," Sora said with a shrug. "Why?"

Goofy scratched the top of his head, blinking. "Well, he said the King told him to come straight back-no detours. Usually the King would allow us to make a few stops, but he said that this time, the King seemed worried about something."

Sora's brow furrowed. "Worried? About what?"

Goofy shrugged, looked at Cid, who also shrugged, and then turned his attention back to Sora.

"Well," the Keybearer said, hands moving to rest on his hips. "I promised the mayor we'd all attend tonight's feast-it's in my honor, after all." He awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck, not noticing that he was spreading the inky black engine oil that was on his hands to whatever he touched. "So we'll leave tonight, right when it's over. Go ask him if that's all right."

"Well, okay!" Goofy said chipperly, turning to go. Then, he stopped, seeing something outside the garage that Sora and Cid had yet to see. "Well, gawrsh, Kairi! You sure do look beautiful!"

"Thank you, Goofy."

Sora's heart fluttered upon hearing Kairi's soft, shy voice. He ignored Roxas's snickering and accusations of, "_I told you that you were nervous_," and hurriedly tried to smooth his bangs around the side of his face so that they were out of his eyes.

Cid took one look at him and grinned wickedly. "There's oil _all _over yer face and neck, kid. Ye're screwed."

Sora blanched and opened his mouth to demand to use Cid's towel, but Kairi and Riku had already entered the garage. He never got to say what he wanted to, though, because the second he laid his glowing azure eyes on Kairi in that stunning, form-fitting, absolutely drop dead _gorgeous_ green gown (or maybe it wasn't the gown), he forgot everything that ever was and had ever come to be. His jaw literally hung open at _least _a few inches, and he was speechless.

"Hello, Sora," Kairi said timidly, hiding her hands behind her back. Her left toe twisted back and forth, as if squashing a bug, but Sora knew it was just because she was feeling shy. Then, she lifted said shy gaze off of the concrete floor of the garage and stared at Sora, an amused glimmer in her cerulean eyes. She placed one hand over her mouth and hid a giggle.

"Whoa, Sora-new look?" Riku said, seeing what Kairi was laughing at spread in black all over Sora's heart-shaped, flabbergasted face. He flicked the Keyblade Master on the forehead. "You're covered in oil."

Sora averted his eyes and, in a panic, began to furiously wipe at his face and neck and hair. It was just too bad that it only worsened the situation. Finally, Cid swooped to his rescue.

"Okay, kid, let's just go get ya a shower." He placed his hands on the thoroughly-embarrassed Sora's shoulders and steered him toward the door. Before leaving, he called over his shoulder to Riku: "Why don't ya go out and buy 'im some clothes for tonight? There's some money under the register downstairs in the shop."

Riku chuckled deviously. "Yeah, and there's some money here in Sora's wallet, too."

Sora bristled, ducked out of Cid's grasp, and whirled around to glare at Riku. "_What_?"

Riku waved the leather wallet lazily about. "Kairi thanks you for the dress, too."

Sora's mouth fell open again. He looked at Kairi, who was extremely pale, and then his eyes softened. Why hadn't he even thought of buying her a present before? He scratched the top of his head and gave her a nervous smile.

"Well, you're welcome," he said.

She sighed and slapped Riku lightly on the arm. "He's just kidding, Sora. The mayor's daughter gave us this dress for free." She shot Riku a sour look. "He _did_ steal your wallet, though."

Sora walked over and snatched it out of Riku's hands, sticking his tongue out at the smug expression on his silver-haired friend's face. Then, he grinned at Kairi.

"You look beautiful, Kai," he said. "Really, really beautiful."

She blushed prettily and fussed with her hair. "Well, I might wear my hair up tonight. I think when I wear it down it takes away from the spirit of it, you know?"

"Doesn't matter to me," Sora replied. "You look sexier with it down, though."

Kairi's eyes went wide and she stared at Sora with a strangely blank expression. Riku's eyes looked about ready to pop out of his skull, and Goofy uttered a strangled, "Gawrsh!" The silence that settled over the room was broken by Cid's "_Cheeky," _followed by him walking over and cuffing Sora on the side of the head in the time it took for Sora to realize just what he had said. Cid grabbed the _extremely _mortified boy by the hood and dragged his limp form out of the room.

"Sora, what the Hell's got into yer head?" Cid demanded after dragging the chastised Keyblade Master down the cobblestone roads, earning him _more_ than a few points, laughs, and looks from the Traverse Town occupants. Once inside Cid's humble cottage, Sora wasn't given a chance to look around at it before Cid had shoved him forcefully into his bathroom. He jabbed a finger into his chest angrily.

"Well? Ya got an answer, boy?"

Sora hung his head in shame. "I don't know what came over me. I just said it to . . . Well, to say it."

Cid studied his face for a long second before sighing. "Can't stay mad at the Keyblade Master for too long. I don't think nobody can." He pulled his toothpick out of his mouth and threw it aside. "I don't never wanna hear ya talk to a lady like that ever again though, ya hear?"

"Yes, sir," Sora said seriously, looking Cid directly in the eyes.

"Good," Cid growled. "Now, get yerself cleaned up, and while ye're in the shower, I'll go head down to the nearest shop and see if I can't getcha somethin' to wear."

Sora nodded and Cid waved good-bye. He shut the bathroom door, turned around, and leaned back against it with a heavy sigh. He just couldn't believe he'd said something so . . . So _bold_. Honestly, it had just slipped out.

_Maybe it was because I was right__? _Roxas said questioningly.

'_About what?' _Sora replied as he pulled off his black half-jacket. He caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror and just about fainted on the spot. There was oil smeared _everywhere_-his cheeks, his lips, forehead, nose, some in his bangs, all down the side of his neck. He instantly felt appalled, just _thinking_ about the fact that Kairi had seen him looking thus.

_Her boobs . . . Looked . . . __**Amazing**_.

'_**Roxas**__!' _Sora felt himself blushing again, and wish desperately that he could punch Roxas with that unbridled strength everyone said that he possessed. He really didn't need to be thinking about Kairi's boobs, and especially not while he was in the shower.

Roxas chuckled. _Don't deny it. You saw 'em. They looked awesome._

Sora remained quiet, continuing to undress. He wasn't going to give Roxas the satisfaction of anything anymore.

Especially since he _did _think her boobs looked amazing in that dress.

Sora's shower went relatively smoothly, and Roxas kept to himself mostly. Sora couldn't deny that he wanted to know what had Roxas so quiet for once, but he was so lost in his own thoughts that he forgot to ask Roxas what was the matter the second he got the idea to ask him in the first place.

By the time he was out of his shower, he'd thought the Hell out of the Anti-Sora and Kairi problem until he'd found himself right back at the beginning of the whole problem: would she _ever_ be able to trust him again? He _knew_ she didn't trust him. It didn't matter, all those wonderful things she'd said about their hearts being connected, and her heart belonging to him. Never mind the fact that he didn't know whether or not to consider that as a confession of her feelings for him, he wanted to know if she was lying. Could she maybe have been saying that because she wanted him to feel better?

There came a knock at the bathroom door just as Sora was toweling off his unruly, spiky chestnut-brown hair. He stared at himself in the mirror for a moment, finally all squeaky clean, and wondered just how his hair had ever gotten to be so insane-_Count your blessings that it's not all God-awfully bushy anymore. I mean, really Sora, you looked like the front of a girl's vagina_was Roxas's "helpful" input-and touched it for a minute. It'd gotten much longer around his face, so that he was constantly tossing his head to move his bangs out of his eyes, but the majority of it had still retained that "Sora" look. There were a few more spikes here and there, making it look a bit flatter than it had a year ago, and more like Roxas's hair than ever before.

The knocking came again, more rapid and hard against the wood, and he jumped to wrap his towel around his waist. He pulled open the door swiftly, expecting to see Cid there, and, to his surprise, found himself staring down into Kairi's terrified cerulean eyes.

"Kai? What's the matter?"

"Here are your clothes," she said hurriedly. "Cid sent me to bring them to you-the feast started a half-hour ago." She looked panicky. "You've got to hurry!"

"Shit!" Sora cursed, snatching the pile of clothing out of Kairi's arms and slamming the door in her face. "Ah, fuck, just one second!" He quickly threw on his underpants, followed by a pair of black, slim fit breeches that wouldn't sit on him any higher than his hips, and then threw open the door again. He grabbed her slim arm, which was covered in a pair of white satin gloves that went up to her elbows, and yanked her into the room while he finished getting ready.

She blushed and said, "There were too many people, and I saw that Cid was gonna leave to bring you your stuff, so I just decided to instead. Anyway, they're all waiting for you because the mayor wants to make a toast."

Sora grimaced, hurriedly pulling on the white button-up shirt she'd given him. It was three-quarter-sleeved with one inch cuffs and a wide, fold-down collar; the buttons up the front of the shirt were all made of gold as well. He left the top three buttons undone, revealing his chest for his silver crown pendant to rest upon. Then, he slipped into the sleeveless, double-breasted waistcoat, colored grey, with black buttons and a V-shaped neckline that rested right underneath the edges of the white shirt's neckline. The lapels of the vest were black, as were the rectangular pocket openings on the front, and as Sora buttoned the buttons on each side of the vest, the entire outfit came together in a most striking way.

"Well?" Sora asked. "I know we're in a hurry, but how's it look?"

She nodded enthusiastically. "Really good-makes you look taller and thinner." She handed him the calf-high lace-up black boots that Cid had provided, and he hurriedly slipped them on.

Sora flashed her a dazzling smile, brushing his bangs aside and tilting his head curiously to the side. She looked even prettier, perhaps, because she was wearing the top half of her hair pinned up, with her bangs and a few of the side pieces framing her face. The crimson locks faded into relaxed ringlet curls that brushed the small of her back, a few curls hanging in front of her body, the ends grazing her waist on the sides. Her lips were stained slightly more red than usual, but not so much as to be overbearing, and her eyelashes were long and luscious, coated in black mascara. Her eyes seemed to jump out at him, their cerulean hue intensified by the deep green of her gown. To be honest, she really was the most beautiful girl he'd ever laid eyes on. Out of all the women he'd come across in all of his travels, and all the girls who'd literally thrown themselves at him, trying to get him to take them out on a date, not a single one could compare to Kairi. And what was so special about her?

She accepted him, scars and all.

"Why did you think to run here to me instead of just letting Cid do it?" he asked.

"I . . ." She stammered, looking nervous. "I was scared . . ."

Sora blinked and, without warning, reached forward, placed a hand on the back of her head, and pulled her close to his chest. She gasped in surprise and Sora felt her tense up. He didn't exactly know why he'd hugged her, especially since things were probably going insane at the feast, but the urge had just been too strong to resist.

"Scared?" he laughed, amused. He slipped one hand in the front pocket of his jeans, his other hand moving to the back of her neck. "What in the world are you scared of?"

"I don't know," she mumbled, fidgeting with the small diamond pendant that she wore around her neck-most likely a gift from someone. "It's just . . . Well, the mayor decided to have the feast in the Town Square of the Sixth District, so the orchestra is playing on a stage outside. Guys were looking at me, asking me to dance since they're waiting to bring out the food until you get there, and . . . Well . . . You weren't there, and I was scared."

Sora understood, right then, what she was saying. She was scared because she relied on him. If she got hurt or captured by any of these strange men, then he wouldn't be there to help her. To save her.

But she was forgetting something.

"Kai, look at me." He took her chin in his hand and tilted her head back. "Our hearts are connected-I'll _always_ be there to protect you."

She was blushing again, but when she opened her mouth to speak, Sora couldn't stop himself from saying, "Kairi, I'm serious about this: you look _so _beautiful in that dress."

"Sora, please," she said shyly.

Sora took his hand out of his pocket and stroked her cheek with his knuckles. She gave an involuntary shudder, and something in the atmosphere changed. Sora was suddenly very attracted to every aspect of her features, including the way her lips were trembling. He smiled a little bit, his heart pounding unnaturally fast, and briefly noted that Roxas was deathly silent. Normally, Sora would think that this was odd, but in that moment, nothing was more important to him than Kairi.

The petite girl lifted a trembling arm to the hand that cupped her face, curving her fingers over the side of his hand, and nuzzled into his touch. She placed her hand on his chest, running it down the front of it, and he lost his breath.

"W-Wait . . . St-Stop that," he stammered, grabbing her hand, his heart hammering against his ribcage. He closed his eyes, struggling to gain control of himself. He did _not_ need this right now. Not when there was a whole town waiting for him in the Sixth District, and not when she looked the way she did. He could feel the thing inside him stirring once again, and he knew Kairi wouldn't be able to handle another Anti-Sora attack. However, this time, he didn't think that Anti-Sora would fully come out and take over. No, he had a feeling that Anti-Sora would be much happier influencing a few things this time. Things that he sure as Hell knew Kairi wasn't ready for, let alone himself.

"Don't . . . Don't do that," he breathed out, a puzzled expression on his face.

"Wh-Why?" she queried.

He didn't know why, but he let go of her hand, and she placed it carefully around the side of his neck, ghosting her fingers along his collarbone. He shuddered and his eyelids fell closed again.

_Be careful, Sora . . . I can feel it in your heart-Anti-Sora might use these feelings for bad__, _Roxas told him worriedly, though Sora couldn't hear him. No, he was too busy trying to enjoy the feeling of Kairi's fingers on his skin, and the curious, thoughtful expression on her face. It was almost as if she were exploring him, and she seemed fascinated by the way he was reacting to her touch.

"We have to . . ." he started, trailing off as he lost his train of thought. Her other hand had found its way under his shirt, just feeling, feeling, feeling. He felt every hair on his body stand up and he placed his hands on the bathroom wall behind her, arching up into her touch.

"K-Kairi . . ." Sora said hoarsely, hardly able to take in a breath as her fingers brushed his nipples, an area that no one had ever before touched. It felt . . . _Good_, but in a weird way that he hadn't felt before. When she did it again, as if testing out her suspicions, he groaned and clenched his hands against the wall, like he was trying to gouge the wood with his nails. Unconsciously, he pressed his hips close to hers and his head dipped next to her ear, their cheeks pressing together. He felt his eyes burn, and knew that they were flashing yellow.

They were treading in dangerous territory.

"S-Stop," he said half-heartedly, struggling to catch his breath.

She seemed lost in her thoughts, and her fingers danced lightly down the front of his abdomen again, tracing the lines of his battle-hardened abs. When he pulled his head back to look at her, her eyes were closed. What was she doing? He opened his mouth to speak, but then closed it again when she slipped her hands up his back, pulling him into a close, hot embrace.

"You're so warm," she murmured into his ear, her curls falling down her back as she tilted her face upward. Upon seeing her luscious crimson tresses, Sora found that he yearned to touch them-to feel that silky softness on his skin and savor it. So he did just that, keeping one hand on the wall, effectively boxing her in as he gently fingered her curls. He felt their hearts beating in time with one another, and in that moment, he'd never felt closer to another person.

"Maybe we should just skip the feast," Sora teased, causing Kairi to let loose a merry laugh right in his ear that sent chills down his spine. The carefree joy of it . . . He hadn't heard such a delicious sound in much, _much _too long.

"Maybe we should," she teased back.

Sora straightened the arm that was placed on the wall in order to lean back and look into her eyes. Her hands on his bare back seemed to burn holes into his skin, making it somewhat hard to think straight. He arched one eyebrow down at her in astonishment and smirked.

"Seriously? I'd have thought you'd be all for me keeping my word and showing up to the feast. After all, it is in _my_ honor."

Kairi pushed her tongue in-between her teeth, her eyes dancing mischievously. "You're talking to the girl who schemed with Riku-who is a complete and total impressionable, easily-bossed around idiot, by the way-to stow away on the ship when you specifically told me not to," she said lightly. "So yes, I think it'd be fun to skip the feast."

Sora's smirk deepened. "Which reminds me . . . I never punished you for disobeying me."

"Disobeying you?" Kairi retorted incredulously. "You're not my moth-" She was cut off as Sora darted forward and playfully nipped her ear. Her eyes went wide and she clapped her hand over it. The familiar maroon blush had appeared in splotches around her neck again.

"Something wrong?" he joked, wrinkling his nose in enjoyment.

"N-No . . ." She seemed at a loss for words.

He frowned. "Then . . . Did it hurt?"

Silence. ". . . N-No . . ." Her voice was much smaller this time.

Curiosity sparked like fire in Sora's sapphire irises and he bit his bottom lip. After piecing things together in his mind, he thought he knew what she was trying to say. All of this . . . "Exploring" was new to Sora, but as far as he could see, there was no harm in it. So maybe he should do a little more . . . ?

Keeping his left hand on the wall, the tall, slightly muscled boy cupped his right hand around the corresponding side of her neck, just underneath her ear, and forcibly yet gently used it to pull her head to one side. Her vermillion hair fell back over her shoulder, and the speed of her breathing picked up. Sora studied her face as his lips loomed closer to her exposed throat, fascinated by how she lost her breath and how her eyelids fluttered shut. Her eyelashes just looked so pretty, the way they dusted across her cheeks, and she was practically panting-_begging_ for him to kiss her neck.

"A . . . _Ah_!" she cried out as he obliged, placing a heavy, scorching kiss on her neck. He smiled against her skin as she dug her nails into the bare skin on his back and arched her body up into his chest. He pulled away about a centimeter or so, breathing hot air onto her goosebump-covered skin, and then kissed her neck again. His lips trailed a heated line up to her ear, where he nipped her again, like earlier, and she whimpered.

"Sora, that's . . ." she started, panting. She was trembling, a feeling that Sora was already getting used to.

A feeling that Sora was growing to enjoy.

"That's what?" he said huskily into her ear, surprised that he could even talk in a voice like that.

"It's . . . _Ah, Sora_," she moaned as he bit down on her ear again. He held tighter onto her neck, pressing her throat closer to his mouth, and he began to suckle on the flesh just underneath her earlobe, enjoying the way she raked her nails down his back. It hurt, but in a very good way.

He ran his tongue along the place he had just nibbled on, eliciting another whimper from between those cherry red lips. "Maybe," he said between kisses to the deliciously creamy exposed skin. "You shouldn't . . . Have stowed away . . . On the . . . Ship . . . This . . . Is your . . . Punishment . . ."

"Getting c-cocky, are we?" she growled, shocking him into silence as she quickly moved her hands back to the front of his chest and brushed her fingers over his nipples again. He cried out, purely out of shock, and his mouth clamped down on the crook between her neck and shoulder. She repeated the motion a few times, until his blood was boiling, and the thing inside of him was wakening. He wanted to tell her to stop before Anti-Sora got bold, but he was enjoying himself too much.

"K-Kairi," he gasped out after kissing her neck some more. She surprised him _again_ as he felt her lips graze _his_ ear, almost sending him tipping over the edge into an unknown abyss. He made a strangled noise that was somewhere between a growl and a whimper, and suddenly, it wasn't just an "expedition" anymore.

It was a struggle for dominance.

Sora moved his sizzling, heated kisses to the front of her neck, nibbling and biting when he felt like it. Kairi's head made a soft _thunk_ as it hit the wall behind her and her hands slipped from his shirt to fall limp at her sides. She sighed in bliss as he kissed his way up to her chin, finally stopping to hover his mouth over her plump lips.

"Giving up so soon, are we?" he murmured, his eyes glittering more so than usual. She held his gaze levelly, though her eyes seemed a bit glazed over. She tried to speak, but Sora forced her into silence as the hand that was on the wall moved down to trace lazy circles on the front of her chest, directly above her breasts. He wasn't planning on kissing her, though he could see in her eyes that she wanted him to. Not in such a . . . Drab place. Sure, he was enjoying driving her crazy with the kisses on her neck, but he'd always dreamed that his first kiss on the lips would have to be special. He'd known since he was a kid that he wanted Kairi to be his first kiss, but until they confessed to each other, he wasn't about to kiss her in Cid's bathroom in Traverse Town.

"I . . ." she managed to whisper before his hands drifted dangerously closely to the top of her breasts, the only part of them that could be seen due to the tightness of the dress, causing a panicky look to cross her face.

"What?" he asked worriedly, one hand still on her neck as he moved the other one back to the wall. "What's wrong?"

"Don't . . . Don't touch there . . ." she breathed out pleadingly, lifting her hands to wrap her arms loosely about his neck. "I'm sorry."

"No, Kai, don't be sorry," he insisted, pulling his head back a bit more so that he could look her directly in the eye. "I have to admit, I kind-of did go a bit too far."

She gave him a sheepish smile. "It's all right . . . I went just as far as you, and I never said I didn't want you to kiss me on the neck."

His eyes flicked to her throat, where a couple of circular bruises had begun to appear. The corners of his lips turned down in a frown and he gently ran his fingers across the marks he'd left, feeling bad. She cried out as he touched them, and he gasped.

"I'm sorry, Kairi!" he said, immediately wrapping his arms tightly around her shoulders and kissing one of the bruises softly. "I'm sorry!"

"N-No," she said, sounding somewhat awed. "It's my skin . . . It's . . ."

"It's what?" he asked inquisitively.

"It's really sensitive for some reason."

Sora placed his hands on her dainty waist and pushed her away from him a little bit. He looked at the hickeys he'd created, fascinated by them since he'd never done such a thing before. Inside his heart, both Roxas and Anti-Sora were restless, and Roxas was concerned about Anti-Sora being awake.

_Tread carefully__, _he warned. _I wouldn't drag this out too much longer . . . He's really fidgety__._

'_Got it,' _Sora assured him.

"Well, I guess I'm sorry about . . . Well, _those_," Sora told her, completely stepping away from her enticing body so that she could go to the mirror.

Kairi pulled all of her curls to one side of her head, allowing them to fall over her left breast, and turned her right side toward the mirror, viewing the bruises with alarm. She looked at Sora's reflection in the mirror. Looking sheepish, all the Keybearer could do was shrug.

"You shouldn't have come onto the ship?" he said, more of a question than a reprimand.

She gasped at Sora's scandalous words, faced him, and slapped him on the front of the chest. She narrowed her eyes in warning.

"You forget that I know your weaknesses now, too, you lazy bum." She sniffed and held her nose high in the air, fussing with the big, puffy skirt of her emerald dress. "So don't get cocky. Now come on; let's get to the feast."

As she left the bathroom, Sora caught her around the waist from behind, slipping his arms about her tiny midriff and holding her tightly.

"You don't wanna skip it with me anymore?" he whined in her ear. "Come onnn, I can show you the bell tower in the Second District."

"The bell tower?" she queried, unlatching his hands from around her waist and turning around. Some of her long hair fell back over her shoulders, and the innocently excited gleam in her eyes was adorable to Sora.

"Yeah," he said, happy that she seemed so eager. "Well, it's not really a '_bell tower_'; it's more of the 'roof above the Gizmo Shop.' In any case, the view's really great."

She beamed up at him in delight. "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go!" Sora laughed merrily as she snatched his right hand with her left hand and dragged him down the wooden stairs of Cid's cottage. They ran down the center of the empty cobblestone streets, the light they saw by provided by the bright, twinkling stars, happy as can be.

Too bad neither of them would never see the view above the Gizmo Shop-or any of the sights in Traverse Town for that matter-ever again.

* * *

"_**No one would miss me . . ."**_

"_**That's not true . . ."**_

_**. . .**_

"_**. . . I would."**_

Kairi didn't really recall the events of the night before. At first, she'd planned to commit it to memory, purely for the lost souls of Traverse Town, but then she'd realized that she wanted to forget. She didn't want to think about their screams, the blood, or their pleas. She didn't want to think about how easily the women and children-and even some of the men-had been cut down, rent in two by the Darkness's evil embrace. The only thing she could remember, clear as day, was the way the moonlight occasionally glinted off of the length of Sora's Keyblade Oblivion.

By the time they'd arrived to Disney Castle, thanks to Donald and Goofy's quick thinking after the initial invasion and destruction of Traverse Town, Kairi was so exhausted and out of it that she'd collapsed in the Grand Hall of Disney Castle. She'd lost so much blood by the time that, also due to her lack of eating, the poor girl had no energy to remain on her feet. Sora, who was always putting her first, bless his heart, had been at her side in an instant. She'd felt his hands on her face and in her hair, trying to rouse her from her stupor, but her eyes had fallen shut out of pure fatigue. She'd heard him crying out her name, but she couldn't muster the strength to speak. Queen Minnie and Donald's wife Daisy had summoned a few mouse maids to come help carry Kairi to a room in the castle, leaving Donald, Goofy, Sora, and Riku to rush to the King's study to explain what had happened.

In the room the Queen provided for her, Kairi sat up against a large pile of pillows, now clad in nothing but the silk chemise Jesebelle had given her to wear under what had once been the most beautiful thing Kairi had ever worn. Daisy, looking quite pretty in her purple dress, stood to one side of her bed, spooning her some seasoned vegetable broth, while the Queen sat in a cushioned arm chair next to the hearth, quietly knitting away.

"This is why I'm so against women fighting," Daisy tsked as Kairi finished the broth.

Kairi hardly heard her. Her mind was reeling doubly now: from the aftereffects of the carnage . . . And the fact that she could feel the broth, sitting there like a lump of calories and fat in the pit of her stomach. Oh, she knew a way to get rid of it, but she couldn't. Not with Sora so close in the castle. She felt guilty enough about not eating when he was nearby, but purging was out of the question.

Yet still the food sat, quietly questioning her about why she had failed.

Daisy leaned forward and placed the back of her wing-like hand on Kairi's forehead. She nodded with satisfaction, and placed the bowl on the bedside table. Then, she sat down in the armchair that directly faced Minnie.

"Don't you fret, dear," Minnie finally spoke up, placing her knitting in her lap and giving Kairi a fierce look. "I won't let the _men_ make you tell them what happened if you can't handle it." She rose to her feet and her heels clacked on the concrete ground as she came to Kairi's side. She patted her crimson-haired head. "No one should have to relive such horrors if they don't want to."

Kairi just stared at her, feeling quite awkward in a room with two giant female animals that she hardly knew. Growing up, she would have thought the notion of giant talking animals was ludicrous, yet here they were, feeding her soup and caring for her like her mother!

"Oh, she must be positively terrified," Minnie said sadly, looking over her shoulder at Daisy.

"Oh, I know it," Daisy said, throwing her arms up in defeat. "Such is life of the wife of a warrior."

'_Wife?' _Is that really what everyone thought when they looked upon her? That she was automatically Sora's? Not that she would mind dating Sora, but it was already getting tiring hearing assumptions made about her. They reminded her of the assumption everyone made about her being unable to fight. An assumption that was, unfortunately, made true earlier that night when her nerves and fear got the best of her and Sora had had to come to her rescue more times that she could count.

Maybe that was why she felt so guilty.

"I think we should get Sora to a doctor or something," she suddenly spoke up, hiding the trembling of her fingers by clasping her hands on her lap above the royal blue comforter that rested over her legs. "He's probably really hurt."

Minnie and Daisy looked uncomfortable.

"Dear, they're in counsel," Daisy said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world not to interrupt the "men."

Kairi frowned. "I honestly think he's hurt badly, though." She was powerless to stop her mind from going back to the moment in question, remembering with how much force Sora's hands had wrapped around her tiny waist, bruising her flesh easily in his haste to get her out of the way of the Large Body Heartless that had been about to body slam her. She remembered hearing his scream before blacking out for a bit, and when she awoke, she'd had to run all the way to the Sixth District before she found him battling with more Heartless.

Or . . . _Were _they Heartless?

They seemed more . . . Sinister.

Shaking her head, she turned her attention back to the Queen and Daisy.

Minnie reached forward and patted Kairi's folded hands. "I'm sure he's all right, dear. Once they get out of counsel, I'll send a maid to go fetch him."

Kairi stared at them in disbelief, angry at how _weak_ they were. She, for one, knew that as long as Sora was hurt, there was no way in Hell that she was just going to _lay in bed_. Without another word or final thought, the scarily thin girl tossed aside her blankets (they weren't of any help, anyway-she was always cold) and, in nothing but the clingy silk chemise that stopped directly under her buttocks, she stomped off out of the room.

"Dear!" Minnie gasped.

"You can't bother the men when they're in counsel!" Daisy cried after her.

Kairi barely registered that they were following her, nor did she care that random chambermaids had joined in following her, all clamoring to get her to stop walking.

_Funny how no one jumps forward to physically stop you__, _Namine mused.

'_Are you forgetting?' _Kairi thought bitterly. '_I'm a Princess of Heart.'_

Namine made no sound, and Kairi was left to dwell on her anger at Daisy and Minnie again, and her guilt at the entire situation they'd gotten themselves into. She bit her bottom lip as hard as she could, wishing to be in some sort of pain that was substantial besides fatigue. Oh, sure, she had a few scrapes, and there was a huge, purple bruise that ringed her midriff from where Sora had grabbed her, but none of those were because she'd thrown herself into the fray to help anyone-_especially _not the bruises that were on the side of her neck. By the time she'd made her way to the throne room, where she'd seen everyone file into as she was carried away by maids, there was at least twenty or thirty people hot on her heels, scrambling about in a panic, screaming about the "rules" and the "protocol."

"_Look all of you_!" she finally screeched, whirling around on her bare foot to glare at the mixed assortment of giant, talking animals. "I don't _care_ what the '_protocol_' is! _I am going to go in there and make sure Sora is okay, and none of you are going to stop me_!" Her fists were clenched at her sides, and parts of her neck had gone red from how hard she was clenching her teeth. She'd never been more angry at a group of animals-and herself-in her entire life.

Then, as if they were just trying to set her off, a few of them raised their hands to speak.

"_WHAT?" _she shrieked, tangling her hands in the sides of her knotted, tousled crimson hair.

"There's blood on the floor!" one of the mouse maids cried, pointing to a small, dried pool of it on the stone by Kairi's feet.

Everyone looked down at the floor and began to cry out in horror. Kairi doubted half of them had seen their _own_ blood, let alone their hero's.

'_Sora_!' Kairi thought in alarm, whipping around and pushing open the door to King Mickey's study. She barely registered them all standing around, because as soon as she laid eyes on Sora, she knew.

"Guys, I'm so _sorry_ to interrupt, but if you don't get Sora some help soon, he's going to pass out," she breathed out, panting to catch her breath.

Goofy, Donald, the King, and Riku simultaneously turned around to look at Sora, who was behind them all, leaning heavily against a bookshelf. He looked relieved that Kairi had come to his rescue, but his face was screwed up in an expression of pain. His arms were hugging his midriff, and he was trying for all the world to look as if he were okay.

The giant, growing pool of blood that was soaking the light red carpet said otherwise.

Kairi darted across the room as Sora pitched forward, falling to her knees in time to catch him. His knees bent and he laid his forehead on her shoulder, groaning in agony.

"Sora!" Riku hollered, skidding to a halt beside his friends. "Why didn't you _say_ anything?"

He only moaned in reply, humming against Kairi's skin. She sent Riku a scorching glare, wrapping her right arm around Sora's back and combing her left hand's fingers through Sora's silky, soft locks of hair.

"Because he thought you'd notice," she snapped, slowly helping Sora to his feet. "And of course, you didn't."

Riku looked like he wanted to give her a nasty rejoinder, but King Mickey spoke up pensively, "I was wondering why he was so quiet." He held his chin. "I thought at first that it was because of what happened in Traverse Town, but when I really thought about it, Sora never stays quiet. He's always very fired up."

"Unless he's hurt," Kairi said, slipping one arm around Sora's shoulder and placing the other flat on his chest to help him stay upright. His head lolled onto her shoulder, his eyelids fluttering open and shut as he struggled to stay conscious. She looked around at Riku, Donald, the King, and Goofy. "You were all too wrapped up in what happened to notice that he was badly hurt."

Donald spoke up in their defense. "A lot of people died tonight, Kairi."

"Gawrsh, we can't just ignore that," Goofy added.

Kairi felt her ire rise again and she shouted, "It's always about other people, though! Sora's not a plaything to be used!" With that, she started to go to the door.

Just then, the doors burst open and, all at once, the entire group of people that had been following her rushed in. Kairi blinked as they swarmed her and Sora, a million and one words rushing in through her ears all at one time. Everyone was mad at everyone, trying to get the King's attention, fawning over Riku's hair, reuniting with Donald and Goofy, apologies for ruining counsel . . . It was too crazy, and it was too hot. The walls were closing in, the room getting smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller and . . .

"_Stop!_" Kairi finally screamed, her entire body shaking as she tried her hardest, in her weakened state, to support Sora's partially limp form. "Please," she whispered in the silence that followed. "Sora _needs_ help."

There was a split second of absolutely no movement before King Mickey jumped into action.

"All right, fellas, let's get this Keybearer all fixed up!" He clapped his hands and started issuing orders. Riku came and lifted Sora up gingerly, carrying him bridal style so as to not make any invisible internal wound worse. He gave Kairi a long, meaningful, and apologetic look, and was swept out of the room along with a crowd of shrieking, fussy chambermaids whom Mickey had instructed to tend to Sora's injuries.

Donald and Daisy wandered off to their quarters together, as per Mickey's suggestion, and Goofy was allowed to go back to his home in town to visit with his wife, Clarabelle. After they'd left, it was nobody but the Queen, the King, and Kairi in the room.

"I'm sorry for my outburst," Kairi said softly, her entire body quivering with exhaustion. Now that her adrenaline rush was ebbing, she didn't feel too good. She tried her best to hide her shivers by crossing her arms over her chest. "I know ruining counsel is . . . Against the rules, but . . ."

"You don't follow rules," King Mickey finished with an amused smile.

Kairi gave a sharp intake of breath and her gaze snapped to the King.

The large mouse clasped his hands on his desk in front of him, looking at Kairi with a twinkle in his eyes.

"Oh, yes. I know _all_ about how you're not supposed to be here."

Shamefacedly, Kairi bowed. "I . . . I'm sorry . . . I didn't know that it was _your_ rule."

"It wasn't," he replied simply.

Queen Minnie moved to stand behind the desk, beside the King.

"It wasn't mine either, per se, but I certainly had a hand in Sora's decision to ask you to stay behind," she said somewhat sadly. "It's not that I don't believe you have strength, my dear, it's just that . . ."

She looked to her husband for help, and he patted her hand compassionately, coming to her rescue. He looked at Kairi again.

"You are not an expendable person, Kairi," the King informed her, rising from his seat by placing his gloved white hands flat on his desk and using his palms to push himself up. He looked her dead in the eye and continued, "You are the Princess of Heart, and you must understand that your life must not be taken lightly."

Kairi stared at the ground, her head remaining bowed, and she realized that she had little respect for these creatures. These so-called "royalty" who made all the rules and gave all the orders that Sora and Riku followed so blindly-these creatures that _her friends_ would risk their lives for.

She realized that she blamed them.

"And Sora's is?" she whispered, lifting her head and trading her gaze between the two of them. "You guys . . . You guys are sick!"

King Mickey and Queen Minnie looked taken aback, but they remained hushed, waiting for Kairi to go on.

And she did just that.

"You . . . You say all these _things_ are happening in the worlds around us, and that Sora is the only person who can fix it all, but did you ever stop to think about what it might do to him?" she cried, uncrossing her arms and holding her fists clenched at her sides. "Did you even think for once that it's _his_ life you're gambling with? The fate of _his_ heart? He can't even have a normal life because you ripped him away from any semblance of reality that he might have had!" She was getting angrier the longer she talked, the harsh reality of what she blamed King Mickey for doing to the boy she cared the most about sinking in rapidly.

"He didn't _ask_ for this, you know! To have to just _get used_ to the fact that he _kills_ for a living. I'm sure all he wanted was a normal life. Maybe with a little adventure, yeah, but not with murder. Not with the loss of life." She shook her head, eyes falling to the ground and shoulders slumping in defeat. Now, she was talking more to herself than to the King and Queen.

"He's so sad now . . . So weary, so exhausted . . . And he's changed." She sighed. "He's not the Sora I used to know. And I don't know how to help him. I . . ." She raised her hands, looking at the lines in her palms, how they criss-crossed and drew apart. She watched how her limbs faintly shook, a result of her desperate measures to be beautiful, and in that second, she realized something.

She cared more about that boy then anyone could ever hope to understand. In the grand scale of things, she was worthless and he was everything. Sora was . . . Sora was _everything_ to her. Salty tears filled up her eyes, spilling over onto her cheeks and dripping onto those shaking, weak, and frail palms.

'_Does he notice?' _she thought, only half-aware that Namine could hear every word she was thinking. '_Does he notice that I'm living for him now?'_

King Mickey finally spoke, timidly, as if afraid to shatter the silence.

"I don't pretend to challenge Fate," he said slowly, "but Sora's destiny was chosen before he was born. He was destined to be the Keyblade Master."

"No," Kairi whispered.

"Yes, Kairi, he was-"

"No!" she snapped loudly, glaring at the King and Queen with enough hatred to weather a storm. "There's no such thing as Fate-there is only God, and I know it wasn't in His plan to destroy Sora's life. No, I think this is _your_ doing. _You've _decided to put him in the place he's in now, because in the end, it's all gonna work out how you want it to. And you know what sucks the most about it?" She threw her hands up, struggling to fight back the sobs that were desperately trying to claw their way out of her throat. She curled her hands in her hair, pulling tight and squeezing her eyes shut.

"He likes it. He actually _likes_ it. He thinks that this is the way it was always supposed to be, and that his job is to protect everyone else. Well, where then, may I ask, is the time for himself? He's never going to learn the things about himself that he would have otherwise. He's never going to be able to just . . . Just . . . Be a _teenager_. Because. Of. _You._" She gritted her teeth and turned away, prepared to go find Sora's room, but what the Queen said next made her stop dead in her tracks.

"You really love him, don't you?"

Kairi merely closed her eyes and continued her journey out of the room.

As Kairi headed through the castle, she was in complete and utter incredulity at what she had just done. She was pleased with herself for standing up for Sora, and for getting her feelings out, but she was still in disbelief over the fact that she'd basically just told off the King and Queen of an entire world. Would Sora be angry with her? Probably. Would he care that she'd done it for him? Maybe not.

_Please, Kairi, don't be so hard on yourself__, _Namine pleaded, recognizing that Kairi's thoughts were treading in dangerous territory. _You said what needed to be said, and I couldn't have said it better myself__._

'_So . . . You agree with me?'_

_I do. I understand that if none of this Heartless business had ever happened, I wouldn't even exist, but I understand that I am a Nobody-I'm not even __**supposed**__ to exist. But I do feel like nobody should ever have to have an adolescence like you three have had._

'_Thank you, Namine. I just . . . I feel so strange. I've never spoken like that to anyone before, let alone to a King and Queen. And I had no idea that I . . .'_

_That you what__?_

Kairi slowed to a stop in the middle of the hallway and stared at one of the many potted plants that lined the edges of the red carpet she tread on. She glanced behind her and ahead of her.

Before she knew it, she was on her knees beside the plant, her fore and middle fingers inching their way down her throat, and Namine's shocked cries filling her head. The sweet relief she yearned for soon came, and she felt empty again. She sat back on her haunches, smiling at the sight of the remains of the vegetable soup sinking into the dark brown, rich soil that surrounded the potted plant.

_Why, Kairi__? _Namine wailed. _That was unnecessary__!_

Kairi didn't answer her. Why? Because it was completely necessary. She felt so much lighter now, and maybe if she went to see Sora as a light, airy, empty beautiful thing, he wouldn't be mad at her for saying those horrible things to King Mickey and Queen Minnie. Maybe he'd even feel the same, and thank her for it. Maybe, if she was dainty, he'd even love her back.

Without another thought, the petite girl jumped to her feet and dashed down the hall to her room, where she knew a chambermaid could tell her where Sora had been taken. She pretended not to notice how disturbed Namine was by her sudden joy, and she gave a couple girlish giggles at the thought that Sora might possibly like her back.

'_But it won't happen unless I stay empty,' _she thought matter-of-factly. '_So I have to stay empty and beautiful for him, and maybe he'll kiss me . . . __**Really**__ kiss me . . .'_

_Kairi__ . . . _Namine thought despondently, though her despair fell upon deaf ears.

The chambermaid directed Kairi down a couple more doors, to the stairs, and she headed up to the second floor which, apparently, the entire thing was the infirmary. As soon as she got there, she saw that the only occupied bed was Sora's. Riku sat on the edge of the bed next to it, staring at something in his hands.

"Riku!" Kairi said in a loud whisper, unable to contain her happiness. She didn't know why she was so happy to be honest. Namine felt uneasy, but Kairi was, by now, completely blocked off to any emotions Namine was experiencing at the moment.

"Oh, hey, Kairi," Riku said nervously, jumping to his feet. He raised a finger to his lips. "He's asleep-he must be exhausted."

She nodded and walked over to sit on the bed next to her tall, silver-haired friend.

"I wanted to . . . To talk to you about the whole thing with Sora," he said after a long moment of staring at Sora's silver crown pendant, which he was holding in his hand. Kairi realized that it must have been what he was staring at, and she wondered why Sora had taken it off and given it to Riku.

She blinked up at him, watching as he awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck.

He sighed. "I'm sorry, okay? I should've been paying more attention. I know what . . . Happened to him last night. I mean, I was _there_, wasn't I? Ah, I'm talking in circles."

Kairi felt Namine come forward, and she placed a gentle hand on his left forearm. "It's okay," she said, more Namine than Kairi this time. When Riku looked at her, he blushed, seeing that her Nobody had taken hold, even if for a moment.

"I didn't protect him," Riku whispered. "And I didn't protect you two."

"You did what you could," Namine said. Then, Kairi spoke, "The only person who didn't was . . . Was me. I should have summoned my Keyblade. I should have fought."

"No, you couldn't have," Riku protested. "You were shocked. You were . . . You were just taken by surprise. That's all."

"Riku, stop," Kairi said softly yet harshly. She glowered at him, and all traces of Namine faded from her eyes. She removed her hand from his arm.

"Sora's hurt this badly because of me, and you know it," she said firmly, all of her earlier giddiness sucked dry and being replaced with slight dizziness. "If I would have held my own in the battle, he wouldn't have had to keep rescuing me. He could have focused more on the people of the town."

Riku didn't say anything for so long of a time that Kairi felt as if the roof was caving in. So he agreed with her then? He agreed that she was a worthless waste of space? Perfect, because she agreed, too. She didn't notice that she was digging her fingernails into the underside of her left thigh until Riku spoke again, startling her out of her reverie of self-hatred.

"I just . . . Keep remembering their pleas," he whispered through clenched teeth, his hands clamped so tightly around his kneecaps that his knuckles had started to turn white. "All those people . . . Begging me to help them, screaming when I chose one over another . . . I felt like I was in the bowels of Hell . . ." He laughed mirthlessly, tilting his head back and staring up at the ceiling. "I don't think I'll ever forget it." Then, he turned his gaze to Kairi, half of his mouth tilting upward. "Thing is . . . I don't think I want to."

The silence washed over them again, and Kairi tried not to draw too much attention to the way she was shaking. She kept her head bowed, hair hanging down the sides of her face, shrouding it in strawberry silk, and tried to erase the sounds from her mind. She didn't want to remember-she wanted to forget. She wanted to forget all about how weak and useless she'd been. She wanted to forget about all those poor children, and how she'd just stood idly by while those strange inky-black . . . _Things _swarmed them, tearing them limb from limb until the streets ran red. And Sora . . . Poor Sora . . . She'd seen the tears streaking through the sweat and grime on his face even when she was yards away. She'd seen the pain in every swing of his Keyblade; in him not knowing whether or not these new forms of the Darkness had covered just another human in a cloak of shadow, so that when his Keyblade slashed downward, he never knew if it was a human life he was taking or not. And still, he'd found the courage to save her countless times, and even then, she'd felt his anguish.

He'd failed to save the people who'd looked up to him for saving them once before.

"Sometimes I wonder if Sora's heart will be the death of him," Riku murmured as he eventually stood up. "That would be the definition of irony, wouldn't it? Good night."

Kairi felt his hand lightly ruffle the top of her head of hair as he left, and nodded as he silently dropped Sora's crown pendant into her lap. She waited until she heard him descend the castle stairs before she looked at Sora. He was staring at her somewhat blankly, his arms folded behind his head. He didn't have his shirt on, and his comforter had fallen to about halfway down his torso, revealing his bruised, cut-up chest. Kairi gasped at the sight of the criss-crossing claw marks and purple-black splotches mixed together with past battle scars, and she wondered just how much abuse this boy could take.

"You okay?" he asked. His lip was split, but when he ran his tongue over it, it appeared less hurt.

Kairi lowered her eyebrows and widened her eyes at him, appalled. How could he even ask that, when he was in this state? Here she was, in the middle of a war zone within herself, beating herself up over Sora's wounds, and he was asking her if _she_ was okay? She closed her hands around his necklace tightly, her eyes welling up at the mere thought of his endless selflessness.

She dissolved into tears, hiding her face in her hands, and wept over how pointless her existence was, the cool metal of his necklace pressed to her lips as if she could pour all of her love and despair into it.

"K-Kai!" He sounded panicked, and struggled into a sitting position. He grabbed her wrist and pulled her to his bedside, fighting with her to get her to remove her other hand from her face. She only kept her head turned to the side and down, so that he couldn't look upon her.

Oh, when had she gotten to be so pathetic?

"Stop crying," he said somewhat abrasively, shocking her into surprised sniffles. He grabbed her chin roughly, snatched his necklace away from her, and forced her to look at him. "This isn't your fault," he told her. "Why are you always so hard on yourself?"

Kairi felt a pang in her heart. She didn't know how she was feeling at that moment-sad, embarrassed, and worthless were only a few explanations-and she looked down at the floor again.

"You're so wonderful, Sora," she breathed out. She reached toward the wounds on his chest, moving her fingers in the air mere millimeters above the gashes. She wanted to touch them, just because she wanted to feel him underneath her skin, but she knew she couldn't bear to hurt him again.

"Wonderful?" He gave her a twisted form of a smile as he re-fastened the chain of his pendant around his neck. "All banged up like this? I don't think so."

"You're always wonderful," she said softly, smiling more to herself than to him at the calm familiarity that radiated from his body at the sight of the silver crown touching the center of his sternum. She twined her fingers together in front of her, forcing herself not to touch him, and kept her gaze lowered.

"Why am I always wonderful?" he asked, sounding bemused.

Kairi couldn't find words to say to explain it without just coming out and telling him her feelings, so she chose to keep her mouth shut. Her heart beat a little bit faster when he lifted his right hand and ran it down her arm.

"You're wonderful, too, you know," he said cheerfully. "Even with these wounds."

She barely glanced at the scabs that lined her arms from Anti-Sora's claws. She hardly even remembered the attack, though the haunting memory of those glowing saffron eyes would never leave the back of her thoughts. She knew that they were going to scar, but she didn't care.

"I'm not," Kairi finally said. "I'm too . . . I'm weak. I want to get strong, Sora. So I can protect you."

Sora chuckled and surprised her by pulling her into a tight hug. She placed her hands on the mattress to keep herself from toppling onto him and hurting him, closing her eyes and inhaling of his scent quietly. He smelled like blood and sweat, but she didn't mind it because his hair still smelled of Cid's shampoo.

'_Cid_ . . .' Kairi thought painfully, remembering how easily he'd been crushed under the weight of the Darkness. She didn't even think that Sora knew Cid was dead, but she didn't want to tell him. She didn't want to cause him any more agony than she already had.

"You don't need to protect me, Kai," he mumbled into her hair. "I've got enough protection to go around for the both of us."

Kairi sighed and pulled back far enough to look him in the eyes. She scrutinized him for a second and then said, "I want to fight, Sora. I'm serious."

He looked pained, and Kairi wondered why. Why was he so against her battling and being able to protect herself? Why was he so against her journeying with them? Why was he so . . . So _against_ everything she wanted?

". . . I guess we're headed to Radiant Gardens once I'm feeling better," he muttered, averting his eyes from her gaze. "So you can talk to Tifa and Yuffie about some training when we get there."

Kairi's eyebrows shot up and she couldn't help the smile that spread across her face.

"R-Really?"

"I . . . Yeah," he conceded. "I'm sure they won't mind helping you out."

Kairi pouted when she noticed that his smile didn't seem quite as . . . Bright. "Do you . . . Not want me to fight?"

He took on a serious expression and his arms dropped from their place around her. "I don't want you to get _hurt_, but to be honest, I'd feel safer if you _could_ fight."

"Then why do you seem so . . . Against it?" she asked, tilting her head inquisitively to the side.

"No offense, Kai, but I don't really wanna talk about it," he tittered nervously, rubbing the side of his neck again. "It's . . . Personal."

"Oh," Kairi answered in a very soft, quiet voice. Sora didn't usually keep things inside, and particularly not with her, but if he said it was personal . . . Then it was personal, she guessed. It was no use distressing him. Besides, she had a pretty good feeling he was just apprehensive about her being out on the battlefield with him, and especially since the destruction of Traverse Town.

Suddenly, Sora winced and placed his hands on his stomach, relaxing back into his pillows and closing his eyes.

"Where does it hurt?" she asked, moving to sit beside him, facing him.

He scooted over to accommodate her and she was so tiny that she was able to sit cross-legged next to him. It was a big mattress, but she was still happy that she was small enough to be able to do such a thing. She wondered if Sora noticed, but she didn't want to throw it in his face.

Because then he might make her stop.

He cracked one eye open and watched her carefully. "Why?" he asked in a suspicious tone.

_Why is it that every time you guys are alone, in results in you two 'exploring' each other_? Namine's exasperated voice called out in Kairi's head, as if she already knew where this was leading.

'_Namine_!' Kairi shot back. '_What Sora and I do or do not do is none of your business. It's harmless, what we've done. Besides, he hasn't even kissed me yet.'_

There was a long silence inside Kairi's head in which she knew she was in trouble.

_KAIRI! I AM INSIDE YOUR HEART AND FEEL ALL THE SAME EMOTIONS AS YOU, THEREFORE IF YOU HAVE SEX, THEN I FEEL IT AS WELL. You can't possibly hope that by telling me it's "none of my business" that I will just butt out. Hell, I can't EVEN butt out__! _Quiet, and then Namine said, _Do what you feel you want to do, Kairi, just remember that I'm a part of you. It's like I'm messing around with Roxas, though, and that's weird because, you know . . . I like Riku and stuff__ . . ._

Kairi realized that during Namine's tirade, Sora had been shaking her shoulders, asking her what was the matter and telling her to snap out of it. She blinked rapidly a few times and stared at Sora for a second before registering what had happened.

"Are you all right?" he asked, voice slightly hoarse from all the yelling.

"Yes, yes," she insisted. "Lie back down or you'll tire yourself out."

"Will do, milady," he said happily, easing backward onto the pillows and exhaling heavily.

_I suppose, however, that you could help him out__, _Namine said. _Just an idea_.

'_What do you mean?" _she thought in reply as she reached outward and stroked his right cheekbone with her knuckles. Thankfully, at least, his face had remained unmarred over the years.

_Don't you know anything, Kairi__? _Namine sighed in annoyance. _Releasing sexual tensions helps stress__._

'_**Namine**__!' _Kairi said, her hand freezing in its movement on Sora's cheek. '_I'm not going to have sex with Sora.'_

_Not sex, you dolt__. _She could practically see Namine rolling her eyes. _Just the stuff you guys were doing before; the neck stuff. I don't know! I'm not pretending to be an expert on sexual stuff, but I noticed some things__._

'_Things?' _Kairi made it seem less like she was lost in Namine-world by combing her fingers through Sora's hair. He inhaled and exhaled deeply through his nose, a slight smile on his face as he indulged in the gentle sensations. '_What kinds of things?'_

_What's it to you__?_

'_Well . . . I can use those 'things' to help Sora. If it'll help him release tensions or stress, or make him happy . . . Namine, I didn't tell you this, but in the King's study, when I was saying all that stuff . . .'_

_Yeah__?_

'_Well, I realized that I . . . Love him. I honestly do. I mean, I can't exactly just __**tell**__ him that . . . But I feel like . . . I . . . __**Live**__ . . . For him . . . You know?'_

_If you feel like it will help him, then do as you please__._

'_Are you sure? I don't want to make you feel awkward.'_

_I can block it off for a bit, but not for long. There's perks to being a memory witch, after all__. _She laughed a little bit. _Just don't get __**too **__crazy!_

With that, Kairi made the decision to do for Sora what he had done for her earlier. Maybe not _exactly_ what he'd done-she didn't think she was "ready" to give him bruises like that on his neck, but she could at least kiss his neck and ear and touch his chest the way he liked. A little more exploring couldn't hurt, could it?

Sora made a tiny choked whimper when Kairi swooped in for the kill, latching her lips onto the little dip in his flesh where his jaw met his ear. His hand clamped down her wrist so tightly that it hurt as he arched his back.

"K-Kairi!" he cried, his voice echoing throughout the empty dormitory. "What in the-?"

"Shh," Kairi said, getting onto her knees and crawling closer, subconsciously aware that her entire backside was probably showing underneath her short chemise. The front part was loose, and she just pretended not to notice Sora's azure eyes staring intently down the opening.

Kairi let her body take over, swinging one leg over his hips and propping herself up over him with her hands so she didn't hurt his wounds. Sora stared at her in open-mouthed, dumbfounded shock, obviously not having expected her to be so bold. She leaned in closer, placing feather light kisses down the length of his jaw and downward, all the way to his collarbones. Her heart raced with her adrenaline; she didn't really know what she was doing, but she was happy. With each little groan Sora made, she wanted to smile because she was that happy.

Sora placed his hands on her hips when she bit down gently on the crook between his neck and shoulder, pressing her hips down onto his, causing his to raise to meet hers. She felt his hardness there and gasped in surprise and modesty at his uncontrolled action, and froze.

"S-Sorry . . ." he whispered sheepishly, his fingers still digging into her hips. She could already feel them starting to bruise and ache, but she didn't care. She was going to do whatever she could for Sora, even if she felt uncomfortable. He might not like the sound of that if he heard it out loud, but he would after he let her take control.

Or so she was hoping.

"It's okay," she mumbled, wishing for all the world that she could just collapse on top of him and fall asleep. Knowing that she couldn't, however, gave her the energy and will to continue with her original plan.

"You don't h-have to . . . To . . . Oh . . . Okay . . ." Whatever Sora had been trying to say was lost as Kairi's lips found his ear again. She breathed heavily, hotly, into the lobe and ran her tongue along the outer edge and all the way down the side of his neck. The amount of heat that was emanating off his body was enough to cause her breathing to get even shallower, only adding to the effect she was having on him.

Suddenly, she found herself scooting herself down his body, brushing those soft lips across the edges of his wounds. He moaned small moans with every kiss, and his hands, which had moved up the length of her unbearably thin form, were now clamped down on her shoulders.

"Does it hurt?" Kairi said after her lips strayed dangerously close to his nipple and another cut and he hissed in pain as a result.

His eyes seemed like twin pools of dark blue, dimmed because of the lust in his eyes. Kairi felt a little uneasy, because she'd never seen this look in his eyes before. She started to sit up, but he dug his nails into her flesh.

"Don't stop," he whispered. "I need this. I . . . Need you . . . Close to me . . ."

Kairi gazed into his eyes for a long moment, trying to make sense of his words. He was hurting, not only physically, but in spirit. The horrible things he'd seen in the past twenty-four hours were finally starting to take their toll on him. Did he want her there to ease his tension, like Namine had said? Or just to help distract his mind from the awful memories? Or did he really want her there, close to him?

He grabbed her under the arms and helped her haul herself closer to him. She laid down upon the mattress on her side, and he turned to face her, studying her face closely.

"Kairi, you've got to stop beating yourself up about stuff, okay?" he said suddenly. "I don't like seeing you so sad all the time."

Kairi moved closer to him, so that her head was almost completely under his chin. She curled her hands close to her chest and tried her best to get as close as possible to him without hurting him.

"What, you gonna sleep here with me?" he joked, turning on his side more so that he could brush her bangs out of her eyes and tuck them behind her ear.

She giggled and squeezed her eyes shut. "Mm-hm."

He chuckled and his hand wrapped around the back of her neck. She gasped when she felt his lips press to her forehead, and a delicious chill went down her spine.

"Sleep tight, Kai."

His answer was a very obnoxious, very silly false snore.

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**A/N: I hope you enjoyed it~ Until next tiiiime!**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Holy poop, it's been like what, ten bajillion years since I updated? Thanks to everyone who has favorite this story! I already had the chapter written, but I had to sell my computer back in August and couldn't get to another one until like, now lol. I have my iPhone but obviously I can't update fics from it hehe. Anyway, I now have access to my boyfriend's computer soooo expect more updates from here on out! Enjoy~**

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"_**I'll see ya when I see ya. After all, we're friends now. Get it memorized.**_**"**

The concept of "friendship" to Xion had never really been understood in her old life, that much she knew for sure. Axel, the only other person she remembered besides Roxas, had tried to explain it to her many times, and she'd _thought_ that she knew what it was. She was pretty sure it had everything to do with the clock tower and sea salt ice cream. However, that changed when she met Seorax.

After her re-birth, Infinite had her immediately sent down to her cell in the dungeons. She stayed there for a week, thinking of nothing but Axel and Roxas until she was sent for by none other than Seorax. He was rude, at first, but only in words. He never once touched her like the other Organization members did to the other girls in the castle dungeons; he only stared at her as if she were a fascinating sculpture on display. Soon, they built up a rapport and he was sending for her every single night. He was attracted to her quick wit and insightful musings, longing to hear more and more about Roxas and Axel and her old life.

At least, as much of it as she could remember.

It wasn't until Infinite expressed an apparent interest in Xion's memories that Seorax began to come down to see her, so they could talk more in private. They talked and they planned, and as the waters they tread upon became more and more dangerous, so, too, did Seorax. His temper flared as often as hers did, and more often than not, Xion found herself on the receiving end of a vicious blow or, as in the case of the other day, at the end of his choking hand.

No matter how angry she got at him, though, she could never quite bring herself to hate him. After all, he, too, was a Re-birth, so he had a heart as well. His was diseased, but it was a beating heart nonetheless. He constantly spoke of his fear of death, and his worries that his end was drawing near, but Xion always told him to stop. She didn't want to think about him dying and leaving her in this cold, dark place to be abused and neglected and used. Seorax knew as well as her that if he hadn't shown an interest in her from the beginning, then she'd have been tossed about like any of the other girls; bedded until she was worth no more than the common prostitute.

As Xion and Seorax walked quietly down the corridor leading toward Yexor's room, she couldn't help but think back to the night before. Seorax had been kinder than he ever had before, allowing her to sleep on his bed while he took the floor and making sure that food from that night's dinner was brought up to his room for her to eat. He stayed up as long as he could, just listening to her talk and talk and talk about how excited she was to see Roxas one day, and her plans of what she wanted to say when she saw him. Of course, eventually he'd fallen asleep around three in the morning, and when she'd seen, it was easy for her to follow suit.

The next morning, however, Seorax had even gone so far as to have a dress that only the most _favorite_ girls in the castle got to wear-a high-waisted lavender chiffon dress with sweeping floor-length skirts and long, tight sleeves that ended in a point over the back of her hand. The neckline was square-cut, revealing a small fraction of her bust, and a large, wide purple ribbon wrapped around the waist, cinching her tightly and giving her a very smooth, nice figure. Seorax had merely smiled when she asked how it looked and swept her from the room as quickly as possible.

It wasn't until they were almost to Yexor's hallway that Xion noticed how on-edge Seorax looked. His jaw was set more firmly than it ever had been before and his normally-boyish looks seemed harder-grim and a few years older. His long black hair was pulled up into a messy high ponytail today and he wore nothing but a simple dark brown jerkin, black pants, and a wide black sash around his waist. Across his back he wore his twin double-edged swords, tied tightly by black straps that criss-crossed over the front of his broad, muscular chest. As he tossed his head to move his bangs out of his almond-shaped saffron eyes, she realized that he was scared.

"What's wrong?" she asked, holding up her skirts in the front a little so as to give herself easier movement. When he looked pointedly to the front, at the rest of the stark white hallway, she frowned and felt worry rise within her. She stopped walking immediately, still holding her skirt, and looked at Seorax with wide, pleading eyes.

He sighed and turned to look at her, wary of the cloaked Organization members and other ladies of the castle passing by them in groups of twos, threes, and even fours, all talking quietly amongst themselves. He took a step closer to her and grabbed her upper arms so tightly that it hurt. She whimpered and looked up at him beseechingly as he slammed her up against the wall.

He fixed her with an icy glare. "Please," he said under his breath. "Be careful when you meet Yexor. He'll do whatever he can to get the information Infinite needs out of you."

He stepped back and started to walk away. Dropping the folds of her many gauzy skirts, Xion rushed forward and grabbed his wrist, forcing him to whip around.

"But what if I can't remember?" she asked in a hushed tone, also mindful of the Organization members' watchful eyes. "What will they do if I can't remember everything they want me to?"

A pained look filled Seorax's eyes for a moment and he closed them. When he opened them, they were their normal glimmering yellow.

"They will kill you," he murmured before grabbing her wrist again and forcefully yanking her along.

Xion's blood turned to ice as the full weight of his words crashed down on her. She struggled to find a way out of the situation-maybe faking the memories?-but she was unsure, really, of what to do. She had hoped this would just be a few experiments, maybe some battle training, a few questions asked; she hadn't known it would be a serious enough thing to where it had Seorax, supposedly one of Infinite's most ruthless assassins and one of the most respected members of Organization Zero, worried for her safety.

They came to a stop in front of a large set of double doors, white in color, and Seorax grabbed her hand tightly, squeezing it comfortingly.

"Remember this, if you remember anything I say," Seorax murmured as he raised his other hand to knock. "Do whatever he says without question, no matter how painful or hideous it may seem, because what he will do to you if you disobey him will be _much_ worse. And don't, for God's sake, make him angry. If you make Yexor of all people angry, then you've done something very wrong. Do you understand, Xion?"

"Yes, sir," she mumbled, her voice trembling.

"Good," he said with an air of finality that had Xion wishing she could just sink into the floor and disappear. She'd never been more terrified in her entire life. Each knock on the wood of Yexor's door seemed to puncture her very soul, and she flinched. Seorax let go of her hand just before the door creaked open, courtesy of a small, dainty-looking woman with long brown hair. She wore a standard maid's outfit: black dress, white apron, and white bonnet. When she walked, she kept her hands folded in front of her and her head completely down, so Xion followed suit, wanting to stay on Yexor's good side as much as possible.

Yeoxr and someone else were conversing quite loudly when they entered, so they weren't addressed at first.

"So it's been destroyed, then?" Yexor was saying in that cool, collected voice of his. That smooth, deep voice that seemed to roll over your skin, leaving goosebumps in its wake.

"Yes. Every bit of life snuffed out," the other person said unemotionally.

"Good, good," Yexor said, folding some sort of folder shut that Xion couldn't see, but could hear being rustled. "And what of the Keyblade Master and his companions?"

"We let them escape, just as Infinite asked."

"And did you acquire the information I asked you to acquire?"

"About the disease?" There was a pause. And then, "Yes, of course, sir. My notes are all in that folder."

"Very good," Yexor practically purred. "Take the copies down to the lab, as you usually would, and tell no one of our meeting."

"Yes, sir. And I am to report my mission's completion to Infinite?"

"Of course, of course. Leave me."

"Good day, my liege."

Someone's boots could be heard clacking on the marble floor, and out of the corner of Xion's eyes, she saw the shoes in question pause next to Seorax, the hem of a cloak swishing around the ankles.

"Good morning, Seorax," the unknown person said. "This is Infinite's new little fascination, isn't it?" Xion's heart skipped a beat at the feeling of the unknown man's eyes piercing on to the side of her head. She kept her head down though, wishing that she hadn't pulled her waist-length hair back into a low ponytail at the base of her head, because it would serve as a pretty good curtain to shroud her peripheral right about now.

"Morning, Donsaix," Seorax greeted somewhat warmly. "And yes; she is to have her memories extracted."

"Ah, so it is the memories of the Keyblade Master he wants," Donsaix chuckled. He gave Xion a once-over. "Let us hope she breaks quickly and easily. For _her _sake."

Xion felt Seorax stiffen even as an easy laugh flowed from his mouth.

"Let us hope," he replied.

Donsaix left the room and Seorax grabbed Xion's arm roughly, dragging her forward to a long step. Seorax shoved her down and her feet tripped over the step. She collapsed on the ground on her hands and knees, her skirts spread about her. The only things she could see on either side were a long hallway leading to a small, open-entryway room with a large bed to the left and to the right, the entire wall was a bookshelf, filled with hundreds upon hundreds of different sizes and colors of books.

"Remain," Yexor ordered her softly.

Xion trembled with fear and did as she was told. She felt Seorax's leg brush against her side as he walked up to Yexor. She lifted her head briefly, just to take a quick peek, and instantly felt a jolt shoot down her spine when she locked eyes with Yexor.

Yexor had white-blonde hair that was short and choppy all around his head with long, side-swept bangs that fell to his chin. His round face seemed perfectly set atop his long, thin body, which was clad in a plain purple tee-shirt with a plunging V-shaped neckline and a pair of tight black pants that clung to his legs all the way down. His eyes were a frightening shade of violet that pierced Xion's soul and told her she'd regret looking up. Immediately, she hung her head again, clenching her fists against the floor in an attempt to hide their trembling.

"Good morning, Seorax," Yexor said, leaning casually against the front of his desk.

"Yexor," Seorax greeted smoothly. "How goes your studies?"

Yexor merely chuckled. "Why don't we just skip the frivolities, Seorax? We both know you're not too happy about this . . . Arrangement."

There was a long silence in which Xion felt her gut twist with a strange emotion. Then, she heard Seorax scowl.

"Of course I don't like this, Yexor. _We both_ know that your methods of memory extraction aren't exactly . . . Humane," Seorax grumbled. "However, there's not much I can do. Infinite obviously chose you instead of one of the other memory extractors for a reason."

"That he did, Seorax. That he did." Yexor was quiet for a moment before Xion heard his bare feet slapping against the marble. She saw him go to the bookshelf and retrieve a book from one of the slots. It was leather-bound, all-black, and the pages were somewhat frayed. Xion noticed the long, brown silk ribbon sticking out of some of the pages at the bottom and realized that it was a diary.

"What is this?" Seorax asked, flipping briefly through the pages. "A journal?"

"Ventus's journal, to be exact," Yexor said.

At the name Ventus, Xion felt something jolt within her and a picture of Roxas floated to the forefront of her mind. But was it Roxas? He didn't seem like Roxas. Who was this?

"Ventus . . . As in, Keybearer Ventus?" Seorax asked, seeming interested.

"The very same," he said. "My Other, Roye, found it many years ago on his travels. I took it off of his body when I killed him."

"This should come in handy, then," Seorax said. "As leverage."

Yexor chuckled again. "As if Infinite _needs_ leverage . . . I'm sure he will in due time, though. Meanwhile, study the pages as well as you can. It may have information on re-birthing amongst the pages. Information that we can use."

Seorax replied, "Very well. We've already pretty much mastered it, though."

"No," Yexor said plainly. "But you are the key."

"Me?" Seorax shot back in shock, closing the diary with a loud _smack_. "How am _I _the key?"

"The diseased heart that beats within your heart-haven't you ever wondered how it continues to beat, though it is the very same heart that killed its original owner?" Yexor seemed to smile in his speech. "Go now, Seorax, and study the diary. You may come collect the girl before dinner."

Seorax seemed to bow out, leaving without so much as a good-bye to Xion. She felt her fear growing with each step away from her that he took. So terrified was she that she couldn't even focus on the new developments in Infinite's plan that she'd just heard, about re-birthing, Ventus, and some sort of disease; no, all she could focus on was the feeling of Yexor's eyes resting on her.

Yexor sat down at his desk and began to read through some papers, confusing Xion greatly. She wasn't sure if she was supposed to move or say his name. She stayed quiet, though, hoping that she was at least pleasing him by doing as she had originally been told.

After about thirty torturous, quiet minutes or so of being on her hands and knees on the floor, though, it started to hurt. Lancing bolts of pain shot up and down her appendages, indicating to her that her limbs were about to go numb. She stifled a whimper of pain and bit her lip. She felt Yexor's eyes on her again, and she knew that whatever she did, she _had_ to stay upright.

Ten more minutes passed by, and she could hardly stand it anymore. She squeezed her eyes shut, every part of her body trembling violently. The poor girl bit her bottom lip until she tasted blood, hoping to divert her brain's attention to there instead. No use. Tears leaked from the corners of her eyes, rolling down the front of her face and off the tip of her nose. A small puddle began to collect on the white marble beneath her face and she stared at, trying to focus on that one puddle instead of the agonizing pain her body was in.

"You may rest," Yexor finally said after a few moments.

Xion exhaled visibly and collapsed fully on the marble, rolling onto her back and lying spread-eagle on the floor with her head propped up on the step. She heard Yexor coming toward her, but she could hardly even muster up enough strength to sit up and bow before him.

Yexor knelt beside her and peered down at her curiously.

"Tell me, child," he said, though he could hardly be any older than nineteen. "What do you know of memory extraction?"

"Nothing," she replied.

Suddenly, there was a loud crack and it took the dazed Xion a second to realize that the crack had been her head slamming down onto the marble floor. Yexor's hand had moved so fast that she'd hardly felt it. Pain exploded all at once in her skull, and she moaned, sitting up and pulling her knees to her chest, cradling her head in her hands.

"Nothing, _sir_," he said softly, smiling as bright as can be.

"N-Nothing, sir," she stammered, sounding on the verge of tears. "I'm sorry, sir."

Yexor's smile widened and he said, "Now then, you must understand that there are many ways to extract memories from a human being. You can present them with their favorite things from their old life, or mention names and places, bring them to meet family members, etcetera." He sat back on his bottom, crossing his legs beneath himself. He tilted his head to the side, holding his bangs out of his eyes with his hand. "But for some, the memories won't come easily purely because their Other's heart was a strong heart when they were a Nobody."

Xion's eyes widened, and Yexor smiled.

"Oh, yes. Only Nobodies can be re-birthed. And since you were a Nobody, and your Other was Sora, that means that your memories will be a bit tricky to unlock." He sighed. "This would be a lot simpler with a memory witch, like that Namine girl who used to run the halls of this castle when Xemnas and Organization 13 were around." He all but giggled and then said, "But we don't have one of those, so we're going to have to do this the only other way we know how."

Xion felt a sense of creeping dread and she gulped, struggling to a sitting position and looking upon her superior questioningly.

Yexor hopped to his feet, arms spread wide, and happily informed her, "In one world, in the past, they would use torture as a means of getting information. I thought we might try a little of that." Xion's mouth dropped. "You see, it is said that when a person is beaten within an inch of their life, they have a tendency to remember things otherwise not remembered."

"N-No," Xion started to say, but quickly shut her mouth when she saw the wide, creepy smile spreading across Yexor's face once again.

"Never fear, child," Yexor said as a pool of Darkness grew beneath the terrified Xion's body. She began to sink into it like quicksand, long tendrils of darkness whipping up to wrap around her body and pull her down faster.

"If you know what's good for you, you'll remember soon enough," was the last thing she heard Yexor say before everything went black.

* * *

"_**I know I won't forget you. Believe me, I try all the time.**_**"**

When Kairi awoke, it was not to a destroyed Traverse Town strewn with the mangled, unrecognizable bodies of children and women and men alike like her nightmares had suggested, but it was to find a set of gorgeous azure eyes studying her as if she were the most beautiful specimen in the entire multiverse.

Which, in Sora's eyes, she was.

She seemed somewhat shocked, but she didn't move. A slight smile graced his features and he moved her hair behind her ear, just like he had the night before. They eyed each other, not speaking, communicating through their vision. It was when Kairi suddenly closed her eyes, blinking against tears, that he spoke.

"What's wrong?" he whispered, only partly aware of the fact that she'd removed her chemise at some point in the night and was now wearing nothing but her panties, the blankets the only thing separating her breasts from the skin of his chest. "Did you have a bad dream?"

"I keep seeing them," she whispered back, her voice hitching. "The children, all fighting and clamoring to get out of the town."

Sora was deathly silent, his pallor slightly pale as he realized what she had dreamt of. Though he had dreamt of it, too, he knew that as the Keyblade Master, he needed to keep his chin up and not break down. The last thing Riku and Kairi needed was to see their "leader," quote-unquote, fall apart at the seams when he'd been fighting and killing for two years now.

_Sora, you need to let yourself feel__, _Roxas advised. _These weren't Heartless that died by your Keyblade-these were people. Albeit people cloaked by Darkness, but people nonetheless__._

'_Thanks a lot, Rox,' _Sora replied sarcastically before focusing on Kairi's halting, choked words.

"Every single time I close my eyes, I see this little girl . . . Or . . . Or that little boy . . . Babies piled in the street, rent in two like pieces of meat at a slaughter house." She clenched her teeth and Sora felt her hands fisting against her chest, grabbing the comforter closer to her chest as if she symbolizing her desperate desire to snatch those poor children's souls back from the land of the dead. "And those . . . Those _things_. So horrible and . . . And pointed . . . And powerful. They were pure evil, Sora, and I . . . I felt so helpless, just standing by and watching." Her big, beautiful cerulean eyes closed for one brief, pained moment before they opened again and fixated themselves solely upon Sora. "I was too weak. I . . ."

Kairi sat up, pulling her knees to her chest and burying her face in her hands. Sobs racked her frail body, shaking her to the bone. She felt Sora's worried hands in her hair, on her back, on her scarred arms, but she could no longer find words.

Sora grimaced, wishing that he could do something-_anything_-to help her, but he knew that he couldn't be that hypocritical. After all, broken people can't fix broken people. So he did all he could do-he held her against his chest, despite the mild pain it caused him from his healing wounds, and he waited out her despair.

The truth was, though, that he, too saw them when he closed his eyes. Not the dead, crying people, though. No, he saw the _things_. He saw them, with their clawlike appendages and wicked yellow eyes. Like Shadow Heartless, only worse. They had cut down everything in their path without so much as a single thought, smothered them with their own oozing, evil shadows, and moved on without so much as taking a second look at the remains. They hadn't even consumed the hearts, as if they didn't _need_ them.

As if they weren't even a form of Heartless or Nobodies, but something much, _much_ more malevolent.

After a while, Kairi's sobs died down into the occasional sniffle, and he sighed.

"Do you feel better?" he asked lamely, the fact that he and Kairi had shared a bed the night before dawning on him.

"No," Kairi whispered, head resting against his chest.

"Well, if it makes you feel any better, we don't have to get up now if you don't want to," Sora offered, his left arm tightening around her shoulders and his right arm stroking the side of her head that wasn't on his upper body.

"O-Okay . . ." Kairi stammered.

Sora lay back, taking Kairi with him, and pulled the covers over them to hide Kairi's slight indecency. He fixed his eyes on the ceiling, his facial muscles working as he struggled to find words to say. Kairi laid against him heavily, tracing lazy circles on his right pectoral; she, too, was quiet.

What was there _to_ say? Sure, what had happened had been horrible. But today was a new day, and Sora needed to resume his duties as a hero. He needed to find out who had organized the invasion on Traverse Town, and he needed to figure out why. Not only that, but there was the matter of the things Mickey had written in his letter to the three of them-the whole reason why they'd been traveling off of the Islands in the first place. _Then_ there was the matter of finding someone in the castle who could outfit them all since their clothes were now bloody, tattered, and convoluted shells of what they had once been, and fast. Otherwise, Kairi would be walking around in her chemise with no bra and only underpants, and Sora himself would be strolling about in just his black pants. Riku, on the other hand, had escaped with most of his clothes intact-just a long gash in the fabric of his right sleeve-so he could probably just take off the shirt and wear his waistcoat by itself. Despite all that, Sora had to bring to the King's attention this new enemy that had invaded Traverse Town, and they were probably going to have to spend a few hours poring over Ansem's old research reports that Sora had collected over his travels trying to find any connections.

"You seem stressed," Kairi said, her voice sounding slightly weird from her cheek being pressed up against him.

"It's like you read my mind," Sora said with a wry laugh.

"Wanna tell me about it?" she asked simply, her slowly dancing fingers giving him chills of a kind he didn't want right then.

He blinked once, surprised that Kairi even seemed to care what was on his mind, especially since it was somewhat of "man stuff." But then, he was powerless to stop it all from bubbling forth, and it fell out of his mouth like an overflowing pot of boiling water.

"Well . . . It's just all the stuff I'm gonna have to deal with when I get around to seeing the King," he sighed. "I mean, since I'm feeling better and all because of their medicine and Cure spells, I won't have any excuse _not_ to. Any minute now, a mousemaid is gonna come bursting in, wrap a bandage around me, and send me off to the King's study where I'm sure, Donald, Riku, and Goofy are waiting to hear the bright ideas that I, as hero of the multiverse, am always supposed to have."

Kairi seemed to think out her response. "The way I see it-"

"And you know what?" Sora cut in angrily. "Why do _I _have to be the one who plans our next move out? Why can't the King do it? He's more experienced in this stuff than us! And he knows more about Ansem and the Darkness and all that shit. Why can't _he_ just say, 'okay, why don't you guys head over to such-and-such world to go do this or that?' You know what I mean?"

"I know, Sora, but if you-"

"And you know what _else_?" Sora interrupted a second time, letting go of Kairi. sitting up, and turning his upper body to fix her with an annoyed gaze. "Why do they seem to think I'm so strong and wonderful and know everything there is to know about the Darkness? I got thrust into this with no knowledge whatsoever, and I just go with the flow, you know? I just let it happen, and I find things out as I go. I'm not a fucking researcher, you know? I'm not gonna go traveling in search of Ansem's or Xehanort's or whoever-the-fuck's God damn research reports about evil little Satan spawns!" He waved his hands about as his ire increased.

Kairi said, "I think maybe you should-"

"And for Christ's sake, is there any reason why I can't stay here in the castle while the King sends like, Riku and the others out on reconnaissance?" Sora cut in _again, _so enraged that he didn't even hear Roxas's raucous guffawing in the background of his jumbled, angry thoughts. "Riku's older than me, although not as strong anymore-heh-and he's just as capable of having ideas of what move to make next. _Riku's_ the one who traveled for a year with the King _anyway_, so why aren't they just doing what they were doing before-putting their heads together, coming up with ideas, and sending me out to do all the dirty work? I do much better as a hit man anyway. Do you know what I'm saying? I mean . . ."

Kairi simply stared at him throughout the next five or ten minutes of his tirade, her head just underneath the pillow, and her elbow-length crimson hair a tangled halo on the mattress around her. She was now indolently drawing pictures on his bare lower back, tracing the outlines of past battle scars and not really saying anything. Sora lost his train of thought when her touch became too much for him and, with lightning speed, he reached around behind him and grabbed her hand tightly.

She giggled. "Calm down, Sora," she said. "You'll wear yourself out just talking."

Sora blushed in embarrassment and turned to give her a small smile.

"At least I'll have you to release all my tension, right?" he smirked.

Kairi's pretty mouth fell open in amused disbelief and she wrenched her hand from Sora's grasp. Keeping the covers pressed tightly to her bare chest, she sat up and slapped him repeatedly on the upper arm, until he grabbed her wrists, rolled on top of her and the blanket, and pinned her down.

"I'm not just some . . . Some _concubine_, you know," Kairi said matter-of-factly, wriggling her fingers playfully from underneath his tight grip on her wrists.

Sora sat down on her hips and straightened his back, looking down at her with a small smile on his face. "Assuming I would have _you_ as my concubine . . ." he drawled lethargically, running a hand back through his unruly mess of floppy brown spikes.

The redhead reached up and tried to wrap her small hand around his right bicep. "And what makes you think I'd _want_ to be _your_ concubine, you scrawny, little . . . _Oh_." Kairi's eyes widened and a mortified blush tinged her cheeks as she realized that his upper arm muscles were _much_ larger than she'd first thought. Her hand, dainty as it was, only wrapped around half of the impressive muscle.

"Can't even get your hand around it, can you?" Sora smirked, finding a strange delight in how tiny Kairi was. In fact, now that he looked at it, she was so fragile and delicate-like a delicate little cupcake-and with how tall and lithe he was, with his broad shoulders, defined muscles, and distinct abs, he could definitely crush her if he wanted to.

He liked that.

"I guess I'm not so worthy after all," Kairi said in a mock tear-filled voice. She yawned and stretched her arms outward, arching her upper back. Sora couldn't help but indulge in the way her small breasts pressed up against the fabric of the covers, which he was sitting on top of, and then he immediately cursed himself and told Roxas to quit his wild laughter.

"Guess you're not," Sora shrugged. "Can't be helped-I'd already have a wife, after all."

Kairi arched one eyebrow, relaxing from her stretch and leaving her arms relaxed above her head on the pillow. "And just who would your wife be, smartass?"

"Namine," he said quickly, with a bright, disarming smile.

Again, the amused incredulity crossed Kairi's face. "Sora, we have the same face! No . . . We're like the same _person_! That's just unfair!" she cried.

Sora threw his arms wide and shrugged. "I'm telling' ya, it can't be helped!" he grinned. "She's blonde, has bigger boobs than you, and those big, baby blues are to _die for_."

"_Soooraaaaa_," Kairi whined, kicking her legs and pouting.

Then, out of the blue, the mood seemed to shift. Kairi's eyes narrowed slightly, and she said, "I know you didn't want me to come and all, and I know that you're struggling to fight your Darkness, but I want to do anything I can to help." She took a deep breath, averting her eyes and looking embarrassed. "Even if it meant just being a vessel for you to release your tensions upon."

The gravity of Kairi's words hit him, and he just stared at her, floored.

"I . . . But . . . And . . . I don't . . . I don't understand," he stammered, utterly confused. He could still feel his heart hammering, and he noticed that it was in sync with hers.

"I would do anything for you, because you've done everything for me," she whispered, averting her eyes in modesty. She looked down.

Sora sighed heavily. "No one should have to deal with that pressure except me, Kairi," he said sadly. "I'm the Keyblade Master, so . . . I guess it's my duty."

Kairi bit her bottom lip and her brow furrowed in thought.

"So . . . I'm your duty," she said quietly.

Sora realized what he'd just said, and he stroked her hair back rather soothingly. She looked at him with a sad, puppy-dog look and he couldn't help but smile at how cute she was, even with her hair a half-destroyed mess.

"No," he said quietly. "You're not my duty."

"But you just said-"

"Everything else that I do is my duty, Kai," Sora said, not really knowing where the words were bubbling forth from. "Except you. You're my strength."

She tried to hide her smile, placing her hands on his shoulders. "How'm I sposed to believe that?" she mumbled. "You _just_ said-"

He cut her off again with a kiss to the back of her hand. "Hush, Kai. You're being too hard on yourself again. You know your place in my heart."

"Mm-hm," she finally agreed, smiling brightly. "And you know your place in mine."

Sora grinned a cheesy grin that made his eyes twinkle and he tickled Kairi's arm playfully. "Our hearts are connected."

Kairi laughed softly for a moment before the spark of happiness left her eyes again and she exhaled heavily, sadly. Sora smiled softly and rolled to his left, sitting with his back against the headboard. Kairi scooted sideways onto his lap, cuddling up against him and laying the side of her head on his shoulder.

"Aww, come on, Kai," he pouted, hugging her again. He liked this closeness, and the heaviness of her on his lap. Something about it was . . . Comforting. "I traveled all over the multiverse with the sole purpose of saving _you_, remember? That wasn't my 'duty'. And it wasn't my 'duty' to plunge that Keyblade into my chest in the hopes of saving your heart, was it? Not my 'duty' to fight my best friend Riku just to keep his Dark counterpart from getting a hold of that same heart, either." As Sora listed off the many things that proved that Kairi wasn't just a 'duty', his face got more and more serious. Yes, even as he spoke, he was realizing something very important that had been hidden once, but was now surfacing like one of those little ocean waves that hides behind the big ones. He felt Kairi's tears leaking onto his shoulder and dripping down his chest, hot and wet, and he knew.

He just . . . Knew.

He loved her.

"Kairi," he said softly, almost huskily, pushing her back just far enough so that he could look her directly in the eyes. They glittered most beautifully with unshed tears and, though at first he felt as if they were of sadness, he then knew that they were of happiness. His gaze switched between each of her eyes rapidly, as if trying to find which one was more beautiful. Of course, they both were, and at the moment, he couldn't see anything more perfect.

"The entire reason why I fight . . ." he whispered. "Is _you_."

Kairi inhaled sharply, and Sora realized that her hands were shaking again. Did she really realize what he was saying? He didn't know. It was as close to a "confession" of sorts that she was gonna get, though, because there was no way in Hell he was telling her he loved her in an Infirmary bed.

Sora was surprised when Kairi suddenly threw her arms around his neck and hugged him tight enough to choke him.

"_Ah -Gackk_!" he choked, waving his arms about wildly. "_Can't . . . Breathe . . . !"_

"Sora, you lazy bum!" she laughed merrily. Then, she leaned back again. "You're becoming quite the charmer with those words of liquid silver, aren't you?"

"H-Huh?" he asked, confused, rubbing the front of his neck in pain.

Kairi giggled and touched the tip of his nose. "Do you say that to all the 'damsels-in-distress' that you rescue, good sir knight?" she teased.

"Kairi, no!" he wailed. "You-"

"Just seems like a pretty standard liiiine," she trilled with a big smile.

Sora stared at her, not laughing. Did she not get it? What was she _doing? _Why was she laughing when he was pouring his heart out to her like he never had before? He wasn't annoyed or angry, per se, just worried by her reaction. It was strange. Almost . . . Guarded.

"Kairi," he said firmly, the tone in his voice commanding and quite appropriate for someone of the Keyblade Master's standing. Her eyes immediately snapped to his and in them, he saw a depth of emotion and sadness that he'd never noticed before.

It disturbed him.

"I _mean_ it," he murmured, caressing her cheek with his left hand. "Why don't you believe me?"

Her chin trembled and she looked down again. "Because I'm not . . ."

"You're not what?"

"I'm not . . ." She seemed to struggle to get out her next words. "Perfect . . . Enough. I'm not . . . Worthy . . . Of you. You're a . . . You're a hero, Sora!" She looked at him, then, tears in her eyes once again. "You've saved all these people and all these worlds, and even me, but I . . . I'm just a girl with no parents, no birthright, and no beauty." She sighed. "Sometimes . . . Sometimes I wish I could just waste away into nothing because I'll never be worthy of you and Riku-your guys' strength and power . . ." She was fidgeting with her hands now, unaware that she was digging her fingernails into her palm. "I just want to become _nothing_."

Sora stared at her in alarm. "Kairi, what the _fuck_? Why are you saying all this?" he cried in a panic.

She sniffled, already prepared to shed tears again. She seemed to feel uncomfortable, saying all this, but she said it anyway. "I wake up in the mornings sometimes and just lay there, running my hands up and down my stomach, counting my ribs, and I think about what it would've been like if things had been different-if it had been someone else with your destiny, and someone else with mine, and someone else with Riku's. And then I realized that we would be dead, if that were the case, and sometimes . . . Sometimes I wish that _were_ the case because then . . . Then we could be happy. You wouldn't have all this pressure, and Riku wouldn't feel so guilty all the time for falling into Darkness, and I . . ." A pained, almost horrified look filled her eyes and blood began to drip from the half-moon cuts in her palm in small droplets of crimson red.

"I wouldn't feel so alone," she finished quietly; so quietly, in fact, that Sora almost didn't hear her.

"No, seriously: what the _fuck_? No. No, oh, my God. Kairi, you're _perfect_. You have no idea how God damned beautiful you are. You are just . . . You're _perfect_!" he spluttered, literally unable to comprehend the macabre words coming out of her mouth. In his mind, she was the physical embodiment of _Heaven_, for Christ's sake. How could she say all these things, wishing death upon them all and saying she was alone?

"And you're not alone," he mumbled sadly as an afterthought. "I'm right here."

She didn't say anything; only stared down at the wounds she'd inflicted on her palm.

"Did I do this?" he asked after a moment, fear turning his body to ice. His hands began to shake as he touched her hair and her face and her arms, feeling the rough grooves of the claw marks _he'd_ left upon her beautiful, once unmarred skin. "Did I make you feel like this?"

Kairi burst out in tears, her whole body shaking uncontrollably. "No," she sobbed. "No, Sora, I'm sad because I'm just . . . Sad."

"Well, if you were sad, why didn't you talk to me about it?" he asked forlornly. The look on her face was so dejected that he felt close to tears himself just _looking_ at her.

"Because I . . . Can't," she whispered. "I can't . . . Burden you."

"No," he said fiercely. "You're not a burden. You'll never be a burden. Kairi, I-"

Suddenly, voices wafted up from the bottom of the stairwell and both Kairi and Sora froze in dread. If someone walked in and saw them like this, they'd put two-and-two together and automatically assume a little _something_ had transpired. Kairi yelped and rolled off of him, directly onto the floor. She yelped again, this time in pain, and jumped to her feet. She winced and bent over to rub her knees, giving Sora a full, complete view of her panty-covered rump.

_Hm__, _Roxas said. _Didn't take her for the type to wear pink lace. I'd have thought she'd be wearing plain white__._

'_Shut up, Roxas! God, you're such a dick! You don't say anything for like, a half-hour, listen in on our deep, dare I say __**private**__ conversation, and then the first thing you say is perverted.'_

Then, Kairi shrieked in terror as she realized that she was wearing _only_ her panties. She placed her hands over her small breasts and turned to give Sora a beseeching look. As he moved to sit on the edge of the bed with his feet on the floor, he grinned wickedly and held up her chemise. She held one arm over her chest and tried desperately to grab for it.

"Soraaaa," she whined, looking cute as she stomped both her feet in turn. Her hair bounced with each movement, only adding to her adorable factor, urging him to play more.

"Cummere," he growled, his heart pounding as the voices got slightly louder. The stairs leading up were long, but not long _enough_.

"Sora, what're you doing?" she hissed as, after she finally grabbed the garment out of his hands from behind him, he slipped his arms about her tiny waist. A blush the color of tomatoes crept up her neck and face as he gave her a wicked grin and kissed each one of her breasts in turn. He didn't know what had come over him, but something about the fact that she'd felt comfortable enough to remove her chemise while they were asleep and sleep topless beside him in a bed made him think that a few innocent kisses to those perfect little apples would be all right.

"Couldn't resist," he chuckled, reluctantly pulling away from her soft, supple skin.

She merely "meep"-ed in response and turned away from him to pull her chemise on over her head. As she did so, Sora was given something quite disturbing to look at.

Even standing up straight, every single vertebrae of Kairi's spine could be seen as if there were no skin stretched tightly over it. He could see her hip bones in the back, too, jutting out above the band of her lacy pink boy shorts, and the gap between her thighs had to be at least three or four inches. Man, Kairi was _tiny_. Her legs were like poles!

"How much do you weigh?" he asked.

"97 pounds," she mumbled uncomfortably, almost as if she'd only said because he'd asked her. He had to admit, he liked the blind reverence she had for him, but it troubled him that she felt like she had to do whatever he said. That, and 97 pounds for a girl of five-foot-six was frighteningly tiny. That alone was enough to force them into a tense silence that she used to continue to put her chemise back on.

The silk slid over her skin, and Sora watched as it did so. She turned around, and he took his time looking at the way her body looked in the chemise. Half-naked or not-too skinny or not-she always looked sexy to him. Her waist-length hair was a mess, but he reached his long arms up and ran his fingers through it, combing it to an acceptable place just as the voices finally reached the entryway to the large infirmary.

Sora hurriedly got up and stood next to Kairi. He stretched his body upward, grumbling in annoyance at having to get out of bed, and then sighed down at Kairi. She looked so sad and tiny, standing there, and he longed to put his arms around her and feel the closeness that they'd shared just moments before.

"What up, what up, what up, my niggaaaaaas?" came Riku's loud holler as he burst in through the great double doors. He waved cheerily to them, a couple of mouse maids giggling and bouncing alongside him. They all seemed positively taken with him, and a couple of them were clamoring for his attention, tugging on his pants leg and calling his name in their tiny little voices. All of them were just a bit shorter than King Mickey, so they came to about his knees, but Riku didn't seem to mind.

"Good morning, Riku!" Kairi called back, her mood changing entirely.

Riku halted in the middle of the room, giving the two of them strange looks.

"Did you two sleep in here?" he asked with a slowly-growing smile. "Next to each other? In the same _bed?_"

"Yeah," Sora said, crossing his arms defensively over his chest. "What's it to you?"

"Oh, it's nothing," Riku said with wide, innocent aquamarine eyes. "It's just that your . . . Problem . . . Is a bit obvious."

Everything went silent, save for the mouse maids bustling about, finding bandages for Sora, talking amongst themselves about Riku's handsomeness, and dancing in circles around Riku's feet. Sora felt himself blushing in complete embarrassment as he slowly sat back down on the edge of the mattress in order to hide the erection that kissing Kairi's wonderful little breasts had given him. Kairi wasn't looking at him or Riku, her head turned to the side and hands over her face.

"You guys . . . Have got some explaining to do," Riku said before he dissolved into fits of laughter, holding his stomach. "And I mean, a lot of it."

"We didn't even do anything, Riku," Kairi protested, finally looking at him. "Just slept."

"Yeah," he snorted sarcastically. "Uh-huh. Okay. Sora's freaking raging hard-on tells me otherwise, though."

Sora combed his hands through his hair awkwardly, feeling extremely mortified with the mouse maids coming toward him to wrap his thin torso in bandages, and Kairi awkwardly twisting her feet next to him, her chemise seeming awfully short.

Why did Riku have to be so . . . So blunt?

"Ah, doesn't matter," Riku laughed, sensing his friends' discomfort. He waved a dismissive hand and walked over, causing the dancing mouse maids around his feet to have to move with him. "You guys ready for a long, boring day?"

"Why is it long and boring?" Kairi asked, putting her hands behind her back and staring up at Riku curiously.

The silver-haired boy looked back at her with an odd look on his face, his eyes traveling up and down her petite body slowly.

"Man, you've gotten skinny," Riku remarked, causing Kairi to blush and avert her gaze. He then looked at Sora, who was staring somewhat longingly in Kairi's direction, and snapped his fingers repeatedly in front of his face.

"Huh?" Sora said, startled out of his reverie.

"Come on and get those bandages on," Riku urged. "We've got to go meet the King down in his study." He looked at Kairi. "Oh, and you're supposed to go down to the room you were in before. There's a cloak in there for you to wear-you're going into town with the Queen and Daisy today to get something to wear."

Kairi merely nodded.

Sora lifted his arms as a mouse maid stood behind him on the bed, wrapping a roll of white gauze around his chest from just under his arms to his belly button. She placed a clasp in the back, and Sora stood up.

"Do I really even need these?" Sora asked, flexing his torso to make sure he had full range of movement in them. "I'm not bleeding or anything-pretty sure the wounds have scabbed over."

Riku shrugged. "You never know-one might break open, gross as it sounds. But it doesn't matter because right now, we have to _go_. We're already late, and according to the King, 'bad things are afoot, fellas'. So let's get to the gettin' and get gone."

"Riku, you say the weirdest things," Kairi said, shaking her head and brushing past him in her haste to get to the door.

"Oh, she's not getting away that easily," Sora muttered to Riku, jumping to follow her and catch her at the entryway. He grabbed her small wrist, and she winced.

"Sorry," he said softly. "Wait . . . Are you bruised there?"

"N-No," she said. "It's all right. You just grabbed a little hard."

"Oh, okay," he nodded, a little bit perturbed at the fact that only a small bit of added pressure was enough to hurt her-made her seem that much more precious and valuable. He then slid his hand from her wrist to her hand, holding it tightly. His other hand went to her face, running through her hair as he put it behind her ear. His eyes went wide when he saw the amount of bruises and hickeys, and felt the scabs that lined her arms.

"What?" she asked, alarmed and trying to get a good look at her shoulder. "What is it?"

Guilt began to boil in the pit of Sora's stomach and, wordlessly, he enfolded Kairi in a tight embrace. She gasped and wrapped her arms around his waist.

"Have a good day, okay?" she said with a slightly happy tone. She looked up at him, her little button nose looking positively charming in the center of the heart-shaped face, and he couldn't help but smile.

"You, too," he said, letting go of her and rearranging her hair. "And . . . I guess I'll see you at dinner."

Kairi nodded. "Okay."

"Bye," Sora said, walking backward with his hand still holding hers. She giggled and walked away, and Sora sighed at the feeling of her fingers slipping through his. After such a night of closeness and talking and getting to know each other, it felt almost like spending a whole day without her would be torture. As he stared down at his hand, still tingling with the remnants of her touch, he was reminded of watching her float away on that island of sand, two years ago, and making a promise to her that he had actually managed to keep.

"You, sir, are a G," Riku said as he came up behind Sora and slung a friendly arm around his neck.

"A 'G', Riku?" Sora laughed incredulously.

"You slept with her, didn't you?"

"Oh, my God," Sora scowled, shrugging Riku's arm off and walking to the stairs.

"Awww, come on and tell me!"

Sora merely shook his head, and the sounds of he and Riku's bickering could be heard all throughout the castle.

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**A/N: Again, I'm sooo sorry for the late update! Hope you all enjoyed this chappie~**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: This is a short chappie guys, but yeah. Enjoy~**

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_**You have to be strong. Strength of heart will carry you through the hardest of trials.**_**"**

Xion was in love with Roxas. He was literally her everything. The first memory she'd retained as a Re-birth was of her and Roxas, and how he'd held her as she died. She distinctly remembered the feeling of his hands on her back, cradling her against his empty chest with the ghost of emotions shimmering like jewels in his azure eyes.

It was a funny thing, a Nobody. They seemed to be able to pretend quite well, playing into the emotions and feelings that they wished they had, blending into the fabric of normal life quite seamlessly. Strange how the first emotion she felt as she woke up inside that memory pod-like structure was love. And strange, also, how she knew exactly who that love was for. Every single night, she wept for him in her cell, yearning and wishing she could feel his hands caressing her again.

But now, kneeling before Yexor with rivulets of blood streamed down the backs of her bare, shaking legs, the only man she wanted was Seorax.

Yexor had brought her down to the deepest of the dungeons, to a room that Xion had only heard whispered about a few times. Sometimes, Seorax let her roam the castle while he went to speak with someone or another and, though these times were rare, she usually found herself down in the kitchens trying to find a snack with the rather kind cooks. She'd heard it whispered around those kitchens, though, about girls who everyone in the Organization had lost interest in-girls who'd tried to take it upon themselves to do as _they_ pleased-and it was in this room that many were punished severely. Some even lost their lives.

Yexor stood in front of her in the cold, dark black room., staring her down with an amused smirk on his face.

"We've been in here for hours now, child," he said smoothly.

"I told you," Xion grated out, closing her eyes. "I don't _know_ what Xemnas was doing. I don't _know_ what his plan was."

Yexor sighed and leaned back against the wall. Xion's eyes stayed trained upon the black leather nine-tailed whip that was in his right hand. The steel-tipped ends had ripped into the skin on her back so many times that they were almost familiar. Her shaking hands, covered in blood though they were, stayed cupped over her bare breasts, hiding them from Yexor's view. She felt somewhat hopeless, seeing as no matter how hard Yexor whipped her, she couldn't seem to remember anything about the Organization besides the fact that she'd been in it in the first place. It was strange to see how these torture methods worked to help her remember things, just not the memories that Yexor and Infinite were looking for. Oh sure, she remembered thousands of other things like the way she liked to sleep on the cold side of her pillow with one foot poking out of the side of the comforter. Or the way she liked to eat her toast butter-side down, and how Axel would always tease her in the kitchens for it. Or even something small, like the secret yearning she'd always had to sneak over to Neverland just to watch the faeries fly.

But sadly, nothing about Xemnas. Nothing about what he had her doing in the Organization, nor what his ultimate goal was. She had no idea what "Kingdom Hearts" was, though Yexor kept mentioning it, and she didn't know what a Keyblade was either. Yexor asked her countless times to just "summon it," as if that should have made all the sense in the world to her. Of course, it hadn't, so he'd just whipped her again.

"Xion, by the time we're done here, your back isn't even going to have a trace of bare skin left unmarred," he tsked sadly, shaking his head. "Why don't you just tell the truth here?"

"_What_ truth?" she hissed, her vision swimming with spots. The pain was excruciating, but Xion had always had a knack for blocking pain out; ignoring it when she really needed to so she could focus on the missions that . . .

Xion's eyes widened as the golden memory suddenly flooded her mind, as if being released from behind an iron gate, and she lowered her head. '_So that's one of the memories they wanted me to remember. If I tell them, then this can all be over!' _she thought excitedly.

Yexor raised one eyebrow. "Have you remembered?" he asked.

Xion opened her mouth to speak, then froze. A troubled expression crossed her face.

Why _should_ she tell them? Something about the fact that they wanted to know so badly was intriguing to her. It gave her a certain measure of leverage over her captors and with it, maybe she could get herself the one thing she wanted most.

Roxas.

"Nothing," she said softly.

"Nothing?" Yexor queried just as softly, straightening his back slowly, so that he wasn't leaning against the wall any longer. "Nothing," he repeated, his eyes staring at her trembling nude body thoughtfully. "So that . . . That little epiphany that I saw cross your face was just . . . Nothing?"

Xion bit on her bottom lip and nodded. "Yes," she insisted. She didn't have any plans to be telling them that she remembered Xemnas's intense desire to collect heart and use them to power Kingdom Hearts in the hopes of gaining the members of the Organization their own hearts. She also didn't plan on telling them anything about Vexen and Saix's sick experiments on Heartless in the laboratory that was now run by a team of Organization Zero Nobodies, and how they were extracting Heartless brains, trying to discover something about their powers.

Yexor grinned widely, and Xion screeched as she felt the vicious tear of steel into her already destroyed flesh. She arched her back and started to collapse, but Yexor's hand wrapped around her throat from behind, putting her in a chokehold she couldn't possibly hope to escape.

"You may be strong-willed, and you may be fiery," he hissed into her ear, "but you're not as strong as you think."

The raven-haired girl yelped as he shoved her forward onto her hands and knees and cracked the nine tailed whip yet again. She felt the agonizing sting in different places on her body, all at once: her shoulders, arms, the back of her legs, her bottom . . . It seemed like nowhere was spared, and she began to sob out of pure exhaustion and anguish. But still the blows rained down, until she thought she would black out purely from being overwhelmed.

Then, as if she could hardly take any more, she felt Yexor's bare hands tangling in her soft black tresses, yanking her head backward. He was on his knees behind her, and she felt the front of his pants pressing against her bottom. Fear chilled her, and she wondered what he was planning to do to her next.

"Never forget," he whispered in her ear, his lips practically caressing her skin. "It will be easy to break you." He placed his hand directly on the center of her back, causing her to scream from the sensation of his skin on her criss-crossing, open wounds. He shoved her down, so that her breasts felt the cold stone on the ground, and her hands shot out to her sides in surprise. She inhaled sharply in terror as she felt his fingers prodding at her entrance, but she tried not to scream for fear of angering him and causing him to shove them inside of her.

"Like snapping a twig," he snarled.

All-of-the-sudden, he jumped back away from her, grabbed her arm, and dragged her to her feet.

"Dinnertime," he said brightly, his violet eyes twinkling merrily.

As if on cue, there came a loud pounding to the dungeon door. Seorax shoved Xion and, in her weakened state, she stumbled across the cell. The door swung outward and she fell-much to her surprise-against Seorax's chest. His hands gingerly held her by the elbows, and his eyes swept over her naked body with no emotion inside of their saffron irises.

"Good evening, Seorax," Yexor greeted, coming to stand beside them. "Are you coming to dinner tonight?"

"Not anymore," Seorax said coldly before he opened up a Dark Corridor and pulled Xion back into with him.

Once in Seorax's room, Seorax sent for a maid to bring medical supplies and a new dress for Xion to wear. He bustled about, pulling back his covers and helping Xion to lay on her stomach on the mattress, blankets rolled down to her hips and arms folded so that her face could rest upon her forearms. She sniffled slightly, tears rolling unchecked down her cheeks, and tried not to remember the feeling of Seorax's fingers at her most sacred place. She listened to the sounds of Seorax moving around his room, slamming things, and wondered what he was thinking.

The maid soon re-entered the room, a bundle of faintly-shimmering gold fabric, a cool wet cloth, and gauze in her arms. She placed them gently on the table in the corner of Seorax's rather extravagantly-decorated room, and then quietly left.

There was silence as Seorax sat down on the edge of the bed next to Xion's stretched out, trembling body. She winced with every touch of the cloth to her back, the pain seeming to have intensified in the passing moments. He was being extremely gentle-so gentle, in fact, that her heart ached for him, and she didn't know why.

"Seorax?" she whispered after he walked over to his table to get the gauze.

"Hm?" was his soft reply. He seemed distracted-like he wasn't exactly listening to what she was saying.

"I don't wanna go back there," her voice broke as she struggled not to let out her sobs.

He halted in his movements, and she sniffled again. She started to sit up, hissing in pain as she did so, and Seorax helped her the rest of the way. He started to wrap the gauze around like a shirt from the neck down to her belly button, covering all of the wounds on her back.

"Seorax, please!" she pleaded, unable to keep herself from breaking down, Her heart was racing, and she was starting to hyperventilate. "Seorax, no. I . . . I can't . . . I don't want to . . ."

Suddenly, Xion felt the familiar sting of a slap to her face and she immediately lowered her gaze. Tears filled her eyes yet again, blurring her vision, and she desperately wished she hadn't opened her mouth. She chanced a glance up into Seorax's eyes and was surprised to see the emotion shimmering within them. She gasped as he cupped the back of her head and pulled her as close as he could without touching her back.

"Hush," he said over the sounds of her soft sobs. "Or I'll hit you again."

"I'm sorry, sir," Xion whispered, placing her knuckle in her mouth to stifle her weeping. "I'm s-sorry."

Seorax placed his lips on her forehead, and she felt a jolt shoot downward through her entire body.

"Did you not remember the right memory?" Seorax asked, pushing back and looking at her curiously.

"No, I . . ." She looked back at him. She couldn't lie to his face. She cared for him too much. "I remembered what they want."

Seorax's eyes widened. "You didn't tell him, did you?"

"No," she whimpered.

Seorax scowled and stood up, beginning to pace. He put one hand on his hip and turned to glare at her, It was now that Xion noticed he was only wearing a black tank top and lowslung black skinny jeans buckled with a wide brown belt. His muscles seemed larger than usual, and Xion tilted her head.

When had Seorax gotten so handsome?

"Xion, what were you _thinking_?" he roared. "What, did you think Yexor just wasn't gonna _notice_?"

"I . . ." She trailed off, unable to find words.

Seorax sighed heavily, wiping his face with his hand. "Xion, don't you know what Yexor's powers are?"

She shook her head.

He gave her a sad, pleading look. "He has abilities that have to do with the mind, Xion. He has the power to unlock memories through certain methods, and as soon as he unlocks them, he automatically knows."

"But he said-"

"Oh, you can be sure he's not done with you yet," Seorax growled. "Sure, he has what he wants now, but the fact that you didn't tell him yourself is enough to make him want to keep you for a little while longer."

"No," she whispered brokenly, hands clenched in the sheets.

"Yes," Seorax replied firmly. "More than likely, he'll keep the information he's learned from your head until the end of the week that Infinite allotted him, just so he can do what he wants with you."

"What do I do? I . . . I can't go back there!" she cried, hysterical.

"You don't really have a choice, Xion," Seorax sighed in reply.

"He _touched_ me, Seorax!" she shrieked, unable to handle the pressure and dissolving into panic-stricken sobs. She barely registered Seorax sitting next to her on the bed and quickly drawing her into a tight, warm embrace.

"He did _what_?" Seorax growled into her hair.

"He touched me," she repeated in a whisper. "And he told me . . . That he was going to . . . To . . ."

"To what?" His fingers were soothing, combing through her ink-black hair, but it wasn't enough to stop her frenzied weeping.

"Break me," she breathed, gripping the front of his tank top to keep herself close to his broad, muscular torso. The way he was holding her . . . She felt cradled; surrounded by a loving warmth that she had never felt before. She felt guilty, because of her love for Roxas, but as of right then, she needed this. She needed Seorax.

Seorax stiffened at her words. "I wish Infinite would have put some boundaries on this memory thing," he grumbled, resting his chin on top of Xion's head. "But I guess this is really important."

"Well, yeah," Xion agreed, sitting back and looking up into his eyes. "Re-birthing is like . . . Your guys' whole _thing_. I mean, sure Kurix has the rest of you out collecting hearts or whatever it is you're doing, but has even told you why?" Xion wiped her eyes free of all tears. "Xemnas always told us it was so he could use Kingdom Hearts to unlock our hearts."

Seorax raised his eyebrows slowly. "So that's the secret they want, hm? I wonder why . . . There's really no connection between re-birthing and Kingdom Hearts. With re-birthing, you don't _need_ the power of Kingdom Hearts."

"I think it's something else," Xion said, clenching her fists in her lap. "There's gotta be some . . . Some _hidden ambition_ that Infinite is keeping from everyone. Well, everyone except Yexor."

"Kurix, too, probably," Seorax added, absentmindedly rubbing Xion's arms. She shivered and leaned into him again, relishing in the warmth emanating off of his body. "I wish I knew what they had planned . . . Infinite's mentioned how my heart is 'diseased' one too many times, I just don't know what he _means_."

"My guess is as good as yours," Xion said sleepily, burrowing into Seorax's arms. She felt his heart beating in his chest and found that there was no sweeter sound.

'_Funny the things humans take for granted . . .'_ she thought as she drifted off into the gracious land of slumber.

When Xion awoke, she wasn't surprised to find Seorax gone from the empty, rather extravagantly-decorated room. She sat up, pleased at the fact that he'd let her sleep in his bed yet again. Running her hands through her waist-length raven hair, she smiled at the sight of the pile of gold fabric on the center of his desk. A pair of soft gold flats made of satin rested atop them, along with a gold ribbon most likely to tie back her hair.

Padding softly over to the clothing, she held up the gold fabric that had been brought, discovering that it was actually a dress. With a chiffon underlayer, the baby doll dress was almost perfect for her pale olive-toned skin and jet-black hair. She hurriedly slipped it on over her naked body, the scoopneck neckline of the dress causing the wrist-length sleeves to hang gracefully off her shoulders. The hem of the dress fell to just above her knees in an almost pleated cut, and it cinched at the waistline with gold silk shirring. With dexterous, nimble fingers, she pulled all of her hair to one side of her head and braided it loosely, strands of it falling loose on the sides and her bangs sweeping low across her brow. She tied the end of the braid with the gold ribbon, slipped into the shoes, and ran to one of the golden mirrors that hung on the walls to inspect herself. Though she was definitely bruised and still very sore from the day before, she looked pretty and presentable enough to be seen by any number of Organization Zero members.

Just then, a knock came at the door and a maid poked her mousy head in.

"Excuse me, miss? But I was told to come bring you down to the Library," she informed a very perplexed and surprised Xion.

"The Library? But I'm not allowed in those parts of the castle . . ." she said, brow furrowed as she crossed the room to the door.

"You're to have a lesson there," the maid said, closing the door quietly behind her as both she and Xion headed out into the quiet, empty hallway. Though their footsteps were soft, what with their velvet flats, they echoed about the walls quite audibly. They kept their heads down in the off chance that they encountered an Organization member-that way they could quickly bow and move along through the halls.

"A lesson?" Xion said thoughtfully, thinking back to her meeting in the throne room with Infinite. He had said that Yexor would be "training" her. So far, he hadn't done anything of the sort. Sure, he'd managed to get her to remember a little bit about her old life, but she wasn't going to be revealing that information aloud anytime soon. As soon as she got the chance to discuss possible plans for escape, bribery, or trades with Infinite, she was going to run with it and try to figure out how to get her what she wanted most.

To separate Roxas from Sora's body, give him a heart of his own through the powers of rebirth, and to be with him once and for all.

"I'm sorry, miss, but it's all I know," the maid answered curtly, effectively ending any further conversation.

Once they arrived at the Library, the maid opened the doors, announced her loudly to the room, and then promptly left. Xion watched over her shoulder as she left, wondering when the maids had gotten to be so abrupt with her, and then turned back around at the familiar sound of boots on marble. Her blood turned cold when she saw who it was, and she immediately sank to her hands on knees. Her limbs throbbed in protest, very much feeling the aftereffects of yesterday's forty minute-long stay on the floor of Yexor's bedroom.

"Up with you, love," Yexor said dismissively, clapping his hands in impatience. "We have much to do today. Follow me."

Shocked, the raven-haired beauty rushed to follow Yexor through the maze of bookshelves and ramps that filled the gargantuan room, all the way to the back of the Library. A small, round table had been set up with a single chair. There was a pile of books and next to it, a smaller pile of pictures.

"Don't fret," Yexor said, smoothing out the front of his black Organization coat. He pulled out the chair and gestured her toward it. "Take a seat, child."

Xion hurriedly plopped herself down in the chair and, keeping her eyes trained on the tabletop out of respect, waited patiently to receive directions. She wondered what was going on and why he'd summoned her here.

Yexor sifted through the picture pile, selected three pictures, and then laid them flat on the table in front of her.

"Tell me," he said, "Do these pictures bring forth any memories?"

Xion's cobalt blue eyes swept over the three pictures before her. On plain white pieces of paper, they were quite crudely drawn in what looked like crayon. The most arresting thing about the pictures, however, was that whoever had drawn them clearly had the talent. It was just that they _clearly_ had been so upset that they must really not have known what they were drawing.

"It's like they're . . . Bad on accident . . ." she whispered thoughtfully, her hands ghosting forward to touch the picture that drew her eyes the most.

'_Sora . . ._' her thoughts whispered, her mind forming a clear, pristine picture of what the person in the drawing looked like. She saw him running toward a swarm of Heartless, a very large key-shaped blade in his grip, and bravery seeming to emanate from his very being. She hurriedly brushed the memory away, however, and pushed the picture away, the movement hiding the other two pictures, which were of a silver-haired figure of whom she just couldn't quite put her finger on the identity, and none other than the backs of Roxas's and a crimson-haired man's heads.

"I don't know who these people are," she lied smoothly, chancing a glance up into Yexor's saffron eyes. They bored holes into her with such intensity in that one moment that her heart skipped a beat. Of course her lies were pointless-he knew when her memories resurfaced.

'_All the same, I won't tell him what I've remembered,' _she thought with determination.

"Very well," he conceded, much to her surprise, and began to sort through the five or so books that were stacked before her. He peered at the spines of each one, apparently searching for a certain one, and, when he found it, opened it and began scanning the pages.

"Ah, here we are," he said, beginning to pace. "Tell me if this sparks any sort of memory: '_We must return to free them from their torment.'_" He glanced up at Xion, searching her eyes. She shook her head, so he scowled and dropped the book on the table. He grabbed another, opening and scanning again.

"What about this?" he said. "'_I believe darkness sleeps in every heart, no matter how pure. Given the chance, the smallest drop can spread and swallow the heart.' _Ring any bells?"

Of course it did. As soon as he said it, she knew that it was an excerpt from Ansem's first report. Due to the fact that she had once been a part of Sora, she knew all about his first journey and how hard he had searched for those very reports.

Yexor scowled and dropped the book onto the table heavily. Xion got barely enough time to see that there was a gold crown on the front of each book, and then she was flat on her back on the floor. Yexor's hands tightened around her throat and his hips leaned heavily against hers as he leaned over her. His eyes blazed.

"My patience is already wearing thin," he growled, tossing his head to move his bangs out of his eyes. "Now, I'm going to give you one chance to do as I say, or I will make sure that the rest of this day is very painful and very horrible for you. Got it?"

Xion spluttered, "Y-Yes, sir." She gasped and choked, trying to get a breath in. Her thin, frail fingers pried at his vicelike grip around her throat, though it was no use.

Yexor suddenly, in one sweeping movement, got off of her and pulled her back onto the chair. She massaged her throat, coughing as she took in deep gulps of air. Yexor stormed around to the other side of the table and pushed two of the books toward her. They were identical, both with gold crown emblems on the front covers, and when Xion drew them close to her chest, the brown velvet felt so familiar to her that it almost hurt her stomach to try and remember why.

"You will take these back to Seorax's quarters and you will read each and every one of Ansem's 13 Reports and Ansem's 13 Secret Reports," he ordered, opening up a Dark Corridor for her as he spoke. "I will send for you this evening, right after dinner, and if you do not cooperate as you are expected to do, I will punish you."

Xion began to tremble with terror, knowing that she had to figure out what she was going to do or else.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Eh heh . . . This story's late update has no excuse other than lost interest. But I thought, perhaps I will update and get everyone's opinion on whether or not I should continue this fic? Let me know in a PM or a review! Thanks guys!**

"**We may never meet again . . ."**

"**. . . But we'll never forget each other."**

How long would it be before Kairi realized that she could stop running? Even now, as her feet slammed down on the cobblestone pavement of Disney Town's main street, she could see no end to the constant battle she was fighting within herself. To eat or not to eat. To purge or not to purge. To exercise or not to exercise.

To be happy or not to be happy.

It was a never-ending race-a race in which she had no idea where the finish line was located.

Kairi drew her Keyblade, Floral Memories, and with one swift uppercut, she cleaved the large globular Heartless in two. She felt as well as heard the hiss of Darkness as it faded into the ground, but she hadn't the time to wonder what it was that she had just killed; it _definitely _seemed more sinister than just a plain old Heartless. In fact, it reminded her painfully of the night before last, and of the wicked monsters that had overrun Traverse Town.

Her elbow-length hair fanned out around her thin body like a crimson cape of fire as she whirled around to shield herself from another Heartless' blow. This Heartless, small and spiky like a more modified form of a Shadow, had tried multiple times to gouge into her flesh with its dagger-like hands and every time Kairi tried to slay it, it melted into a puddle and zoomed just out of her reach. She gritted her teeth as this time it was able to stab into her sword hand, causing her to drop Floral Memories to the ground with a clatter. She let out a screech of surprise and pain as the spiky, compact Heartless leapt onto her back, landing with its sharp hands sunken into the fleshy area between her shoulder blades. Pain exploded like stars in front of her eyes and she fell to her hands and knees, acutely aware of each and every movement of the Heartless that had set upon her.

All around her, the Heartless were attacking the animals of Disney Town, sparing none and showing no mercy. Kairi was, again, helpless to watch as countless lives were snuffed out, age and gender having no effect on the Heartless' malicious mission. Though she was terrified and images of the dying people of Traverse Town kept playing like a movie reel in her mind's eye, she knew she had to get up and fight. She knew she had to prove to Sora that she _could_ fight, so that he didn't change his mind about letting her stay.

With a strengthened howl of rage, Kairi rolled over as forcefully as she could, hoping to squash the Heartless that was attacking her under her slight form. Alarmed, the Heartless hissed and hurriedly melted away, saving itself from certain death. Now free, the crimson-haired girl was able to scramble to her feet and re-summon Floral Memories. She prepared to slice through the Heartless that had put the two painful gashes in her back, but was stopped by the harsh yell of someone calling her name.

Distracted, Kairi stumbled forward, tripping right over the body of the Heartless she'd been about to kill. She fell flat on her face, losing her grip on her Keyblade yet again, and gasped as it skidded to a halt at the foot of a small mouse. The young mouse screamed in agony as three of the spiky black Heartless set upon her, tearing the fur and flesh from her bones and sending blood spraying all across the street. It was nothing, however, compared to the body parts and drying blood that already smeared the walkway, and only seemed to add to the carnage in a nondescript way.

Just then, Kairi heard an ear-splitting scream and, through a haze of torturous pain, she realized that it was coming from her own mouth. She tried to move her body, but the heavy foot of one of the large, globe-shaped Heartless stamped down upon her unprotected back again, surely breaking most of the bones in her ribcage. She struggled to take a breath in, and the only sounds she could heard were the sounds of her shaking, rattling breath trying to fill her lungs with air. Trembling and convulsing violently, she attempted to haul herself up, but to no avail.

She heard the voice calling her name again, and she felt her heart skip a beat.

_It's Sora_, Namine choked out, the intense relief she felt washing through Kairi's head in waves. _Sora's come to help you__!_

The loud, jarring clanging of Keyblade striking metal was enough to bring Kairi back to the real world, and out of the reverie that her pained body had thrust her into. She gathered up all the remaining strength she had left in her body and forced herself to her feet.

"_Strike Raid_!" she heard Sora yell just before she saw both of his Keyblades, Oblivion and Oathkeeper, come spinning around either side of her head. They intersected at the neck of the globular Heartless, beheading it, and whipped back around to behind her. She turned her head, saw Sora-who was clad in the black and yellow outfit that he'd been wearing when they left the Islands, tattered, ripped, and bloody in some places, though it was-jump up to catch both blades in midair. Behind him, Donald and Goofy came dashing in, weapons drawn. Goofy performed his Tornado attack, spinning rapidly and with deadly precision into a line of Heartless before they even knew what was coming. Donald cast his most powerful Thundaga spell, growling as several lightning bolts shot down from the sky to zap their enemies into nothingness. Sora, meanwhile, flipped his body forward and landed on his haunches with the Keyblades outstretched. His gaze was cold, calculating, which was not much different from the look he'd had just earlier. But this time, he didn't look like he was trying to get them out of there alive.

This time . . . He was going to try and save Disney Town.

"Goofy!" Sora called, his eyes snapping to his friend. "Ready?"

"As ever, Sora!" he replied, raising his shield as a haze of Darkness suddenly spread about the surrounding area. Sora seemed to be pulled into the air, a glowing yellow aura sizzling about his skin and an unseen wind whipping his unruly hair about. All limbs spread, he looked for all the world like a human star.

"Give me _strength_!" Sora roared, a strong, almost vicious wind exploding outward from his body. The light hovering over his body got so bright that Kairi had to shield her eyes with her arm just to escape the full brunt of it. Then, the light faded, and she could hear Sora yelling, fighting with all of his might to save the villagers. Her eyes snapped open, shocked to see that his clothes had changed and instead of yellow, he was now clad head-to-toe in red and a bit of black. He was much faster now; light on his feet, even. He struck with more force and even more determination in his eyes than before, and with each spin of his body, more and more enemies flew into the air, the Darkness on their bodies screaming and hissing in protest as intense halos of Light attacked in a wide berth around his body. As each Heartless disappeared, more seemed to come and take their place, killing the mammals that Sora had been trying to save and causing more screams to rise up to meet the sky.

Just beyond the reach of Sora's Light, Kairi caught sight of a tiny shrew that couldn't have been much more than a few months old. It was lying atop its mother's body, wailing and wailing and wailing. It seemed like its cries would never stop.

But the Heartless that was looming behind it, fangs bared and the three silver claws on each hand outstretched, seemed to have other ideas in mind.

Kairi clenched her fist and scrabbled forward, her pain forgotten as her hand once again closed over the hilt of Floral Memories. She rushed toward the crying shrew and its dead, dismembered mother, and, turning the upper half of her body slightly to the left, she swung her right arm outward and let the Keyblade fly. It sliced through the air with wicked accuracy, and when it came back to Kairi's hand, it left behind two halves of what had once been a Heartless. Kairi ran across the remaining distance and scooped the little shrew up into her left arm, holding it tightly to her body. It clutched tightly to the chest of her white sundress, its paws staining the fabric with blood other than her own. She turned around and caught Sora's eye. He was standing in-between two of the large globular Heartless, the tips of Oblivion and Oathkeeper sunk deep into their midriffs.

Kairi jerked her head in the direction of Donald, who was watching her and seemed to get the gist of what she wanted. The blood-stained duck waddled over as fast as possible.

"Okay, change of tactic, everyone!" Sora hollered to the palace guard, which Kairi hadn't noticed were fighting alongside them in the midst of the fray.

"Grab as many of the survivors as you can and get them up to the palace!" Sora continued, having to turn his attention to one of the thorny Heartless that had jumped onto his back. It screeched with an unearthly howl and sunk its fangs deep into Sora's neck, causing him to fall to his knees and his face to screw up in pain. Kairi gasped and took a step forward, but Donald moved in front of her, faced outward, and raised his magic staff to fend off a small Heartless that looked like a treasure chest with four spidery legs.

Sora snarled with rage as he dropped Oblivion and grabbed the top of the head of the Heartless that was viciously trying to tear into his flesh. His radioactive-blue eyes seemed to shine as he viciously ripped the creature away. The creature screamed and its limbs shook wildly as Sora held it out to the side in the air, the Keyblade Master's flesh and blood dripping from its bared teeth. Sora bowed his head, his sweat-laden hair falling forward to shield his face from view as he crushed the skull of the Heartless with cruelly curved fingers, black blood and shadow oozing over his palm as the body of the Heartless dissolved. It seemed to groan as it died and disappeared, its glowing yellow eyes being the last to vanish as the light faded from within them.

Kairi stifled a cry of horror at what she had just witnessed, her mouth dropping open when Sora's head snapped up and she saw that familiar saffron shifting behind the cobalt of his irises. Clutching the baby shrew even tighter to her chest, she, together with the rest of the palace guard, Goofy, and Donald, began to rush around the street, gathering as many survivors as possible and trying to usher them down a side street that would lead out of the town and up the dirt path to Disney Castle. Sora continued to fight, a huge wave of red Light knocking a cluster of Heartless into the air and spearing them through the middles.

Turning her back and feeling quite reluctant to leave Sora alone, she ran with the rest of the hundred-some group down the street. The palace guard flanked the edges, Goofy-their captain-leading them out of town and out onto the grasslands beyond. But for some reason, no matter how much they ran, they couldn't seem to get close enough to the castle.

What was going on?

Kairi called Goofy's name, desperate to find out what was the matter, but no sound poured forth from between those cherry-red lips. She stopped out of pure confusion, and was horrified as the baby shrew in her arms began to wail again, suddenly cursting into bright red flames that were so hot that they seared her right to the bone. Kairi screamed in agony and horror and dropped the flaming ball of shrew and started to back up, watching in terror as everyone of Disney Town's inhabitants spontaneously combusted as well, including Donald, Goofy, and Goofy's knights.

"Sora!" she cried, turning to go find him and have him see what she was seeing, but as she turned, all of Disney Town seemed to fade around her, until she was left standing in a dank dungeon cell, unseen by the cell's inhabitants.

Before her, on the worn cot, sat a girl as familiar to Kairi as herself, with hair as black as night and an elegant gold dress. She was staring down at two leather-bound books and her mouth was moving constantly, as if whispering a dark incantation. Standing before the unknown girl, clad in the Organization's black cloak, was a man with hair as dark as hers and a loving, tender expression on his face. It was clear to see that this man loved this woman, but she was too absorbed in the books to notice.

Then, as if Kairi wasn't already more confused than she'd ever been in her life, Sora seemed to materialize out of thin air beside her, tall and imposing, wearing the same cloak as the raven-haired man. Before she could say anything to him, though, the girl suddenly gave a shout.

"_Roxas_!" she cried, leaping into Sora's arms. They embraced each other for a long moment, Kairi watching on in dumbfounded shock, and then Xion's eyes met Kairi's.

"_The key forms from the joined seams."_

Kairi's eyes snapped open, and after a moment of disorientated looking around, she realized she'd been dreaming. She lifted her head from her arms on the table that was in front of her, surprised that she'd fallen asleep in the first place. She couldn't even remember being tired. When she glanced down, she saw that she was no longer wearing her chemise, but was now clad in a simple long-sleeved dress the color of pink roses with a sweetheart neckline and a high, cinched waist. The skirts, made of chiffon, swept across the floor like the ghost of a whisper with every step she took, and the bodice, made of satin, laced up the back from the swell of her bottom to the middle of her shoulder blades.

_Well, Kairi, you haven't really eaten anything in a couple weeks, or more__, _Namine reminded her worriedly. _Your body is more tired than you think__._

Kairi ignored her words, though she knew her Nobody was correct, and then reflected on her strange dream. Or could it be considered a nightmare? She wasn't sure. All she cared about was the last part of the dream, and the raven-haired girl with the same face as her own. Her words echoed in Kairi's head, floating before her mind's eye like a flashing banner. What had she meant by "_the key forms from the joined seams,_" and what connection did she have with Roxas? Had the attack on Disney Town been merely a dream, or rather a dark premonition of events soon to come? Where was the cell that the girl had been locked in located, and who was the man staring at her with such longing in his eyes? And why, oh why, did the girl, Namine, and herself have the same face? As far as Kairi was concerned, a person could only have one Nobody.

The redhead surveyed her surroundings, surprised to see that she was in the King's study. She faintly remembered shopping with the Queen and Lady Daisy all day, buying countless numbers of different types of things that she could wear on her journey, all the way down to panties and brassieres. She glanced to her right and down, and saw all of her purchases stacked in their boxes neatly next to the King's desk. Then, she realized that it was the King's desk that she was sitting at and sleeping on, and she jumped up to her feet. She was bombarded by the usual feeling of intense dizziness, and she had to grab on to edge of the desk to steady herself, but when she finally felt all right, she moved toward the door.

'_Why am I in here?' _she thought in puzzlement as her hand closed around the doorknob. Her heart sank as she pushed and pulled, but the door wouldn't budge. Her mind began to whirl with questions, the biggest of all being her utter bewilderment at being locked into the King's study of all places.

Voices began to waft through the door in pieces, and she automatically recognized them as belonging to the Queen and Sora.

"She . . . The town square . . . Very distur . . . Do?" the Queen asked.

Kairi pressed her ear to the door, straining to hear their conversation, as she could hardly remember anything after leaving the Infirmary that morning to retrieve the cloak that had been set out for her to wear while shopping.

She heard Sora sigh, and then, "I . . . Looks very . . . Lately, and . . . Riku . . . But I don't . . . Her?"

" . . . Course you . . . But you must . . . Frightened the little . . . Right there!"

Kairi heard a key being turned in the lock on the door and, alarmed, jumped backward just as the door swung open and she looked into the eyes of none other than a worried Queen Mickey and a very exhausted, very concerned Keyblade Master Sora. Sora wore a very unadorned outfit of black leggings, a russet-brown jerkin with no sleeves that was just a shade darker than his own hair, and a wide brown sash around his slender waist. His feet were slipped into slouchy black leather boots that reached halfway up his calves and had wide brims that flopped down as if they weighed too much, and his familiar silver crown pendant still glinted against his chest. When his radioactive azure eyes met her own crystalline cerulean irises, all she could see was his disappointment, set into the unyielding mask that seemed to cover his face.

"You're awake!" the Queen gushed, slipping the antique golden key into a hidden pocket at the front of her dress.

"What happened?" Kairi demanded, brushing Sora's hands away as he reached for her.

"Why, you don't remember?" The Queen frowned. "Maybe we should send you to the Infirmary; you'll just have to skip the feast."

Kairi stubbornly shook her head. "I'm not going anywhere until you tell me what happened!"

"No, Kairi," Sora said sternly, folding his hands across his chest and tossing his head to get his chin-length bangs out of his eyes. "Why don't _you _tell _us_ what happened."

Kairi took another step back and stared at Sora as if he'd just punched her in the face. Almost as if on cue, her stomach gave a low, wild growl, and she hurriedly placed her hands over it, as if she could stifle the sound by doing so.

She knew she'd been found out.

Sora's stone-like façade seemed to crumble, and he reached for her again, his face showing every emotion possible in that one moment. Kairi kept backing away from him though, until her back his the front of King Mickey's desk and she was forced to stop. She placed a hand to her chest, as if grasping something close, and stretched her other trembling hand out until her palm was flat on his chest. He stopped coming closer, looked down at her shaking hand, sighed, and stopped.

"What . . . Happened?" she whispered, staring intently into Queen Minnie's big, black eyes.

The Queen continued to stare at her with a worried expression before she finally said, "You fainted in the Town Square. When we tried to rouse you, you became fanatical and tried to attack Lady Daisy. We were forced to have a couple of nearby knights hold you down."

Kairi's eyes widened. "Then . . . How did I get in here? And why did you lock me in?"

"Well, you were screaming!" the Queen gushed, somewhat nervously smoothing out her skirts. "You were kicking and waving your fists about wildly even as we rode in the carriage back up to the castle. The King told me to put you in his study and he would see to you with his magic. He went inside, a moment later your screaming stopped, and he left."

"Locking me in?"

"You were in a frenzy," the Queen answered. "We were worried."

Kairi's eyes shifted from Sora to the Queen. She had about as much of an idea about what had occurred as the two of them did, but for right now, she felt just fine. Well, as fine as a girl who hardly ate could feel.

"Well, I feel just fine," Kairi snapped irritably, running a hand backward through her elbow-length, tousled crimson hair. "I'd like to go to the feast, actually."

"I don't think that's such a good idea," the Queen said in reply. "You should rest. A feast and a ball would be-"

"I said I'd like to go to the feast!" Kairi shrieked, fed up with Queen Minnie's "_suggestions_." She glared at the little mouse as if to challenge her. Her hand was still on Sora's chest, and, powerless to stop him, she cried out in alarm as he grabbed it tightly and yanked her close to him.

"Sora, let me go!" she insisted, fighting against his embrace.

"Kairi, calm down," he said sharply, the sudden rise of anger in his tone making her cease her struggling. She closed her eyes and exhaled, relaxing against his chest. As a result, he tightened his arms around her and glanced over his shoulder at the Queen.

"Queen Minnie, do you mind giving us some privacy? Kairi and I will be down to dinner as soon as it starts."

"Are you sure?" the Queen queried apprehensively. "The whole of Disney town will be in the Grand Hall; is she well enough to handle it?"

"I understand your concerns, milady, and I assure you, she will be just fine," Sora said softly, the maturity and calmness radiating from his body enough to soothe Kairi of her irritation.

"All right," the Queen said reluctantly. "Kairi, there's a dress for you to wear tonight in the very bottom box of the stack. If you'd like a maid to help you into it, the guard outside the door can send for one. Dinner is in thirty minutes; try and arrive ten minutes before so that the seating can be properly arranged." She drew herself up and gathered her skirts in front of her to keep herself from tripping as she exited the study. As soon as the door closed, Sora seemed to relax and he pushed Kairi back at arm's length.

"Kairi, _what happened_?" he whispered, gripping her shoulders so tightly that it hurt her.

"I know as much as you do," Kairi answered curtly. "I can't even remember anything beyond leaving the Infirmary."

Sora finally moved aside as she brushed past him and began to move the boxes of clothes from the top of the pile to reach the bottom box. Her mind whirled at a million miles per second, working as hard as possible to figure out what had happened. No matter how hard she tried though, it seemed that the memory was just out of reach-as if something was holding it back.

Kairi grabbed the bottom box and slammed it down on top of the desk. She removed the lid, glowering at a dress made of deep burgundy velvet as if it had done her some personal wrong. She practically ripped it out of the box and shook it out to look at it in its entirety. Seeing the dress in all its hideousness, she made the decision to wear something else. She tossed it aside, ignoring Sora's shocked gasp as the offending garment hit him square in the face.

The redhead fell to her knees and began rummaging through the other boxes, tossing things this way and that as she searched for something to wear that reflected her personality a bit better. Not only that, but she had a feeling that somehow, this feast was going to end up frighteningly similar to the feast in Traverse Town. If worst came to worst, she wanted to be dressed for easy movement in battle.

Seeing nothing but her chemise tucked into the bottom of a box that also carried a long, double-breasted black coat with gray animal-fur on the hem, the ends of the sleeves, and the collar, Kairi realized that she was out of luck.

"Kai, what are you _doing_?" Sora asked with a bit of annoyance in his tone as he gathered up the things she'd tossed about the King's once-clean study.

"I'm trying to find something more breathable," she muttered, peering through the boxes again to find something substantial that she could put together.

"Why?" he asked. "We're going to a ball and a royal feast-even _I'm_ going to change."

"I wouldn't," Kairi advised, briefly shooting him a warning glance.

"Why not?" He looked down at himself, then found that he couldn't see himself what with the giant pile of dresses and other assorted clothes that he was holding.

"I . . ." She sighed and then let the shirt she was holding fall into her lap along with her hands. She gazed up at him. "I had a dream."

"A dream?" He looked utterly confused. "A dream about what?"

"I just . . . I think we should be ready," she said, resuming her search. "That's all. I just think we should be ready."

Sora seemed to think about her words for a moment before something clicked inside his head and he sighed. He set the pile of clothing on top of the King's desk and knelt beside the thin, frail girl.

"Kairi," he murmured.

She didn't look at him, only continued to search.

"_Kairi_," he repeated.

She looked at him, then, and there were tears in her eyes. Sora reached out and touched her face.

"Don't worry," he said with a slight smile. "We're in the King's territory-if there's any safer place, it's here."

Kairi searched his eyes for a long moment before heaving yet another sigh. "Sora . . . I don't think so. I think . . . I think something's going to happen. Something bad. I just really think that we should be as ready as we can."

"I agree," Sora said, relaxing onto his rump on the carpeted floor. He crossed his legs Indian-style and placed his hands on his knees. "We _should_ be ready for battle at all times. But I promise you, everything is going to be fine. Even if Disney Town were attacked, the castle is protected by magic spells cast by Yen Sid himself. The entire town will be inside the castle tonight-everyone will be fine."

Kairi stubbornly shook her head. "Sora, you're not getting it! My dream was so . . . So vivid! And I saw this girl who looked . . . She looked just like me! But it wasn't Namine. And there was this guy . . . And a dungeon cell . . . And . . . And . . . Sora, she called you Roxas! And . . . I could fight!" She continued to splutter nonsense, not really comprehending the blank expression on Sora's face. Her mind was whirling once again, trying to catch up with itself as it ran a wild race of recollection.

"All right," Sora said quietly after she finally quieted down. "I get what you're trying to say, Kai-you just want to be careful."

She nodded.

He went on, "I get that. And I can assure you, we'll be ready for an attack. I'll talk to the King, and I'll tell Goofy to make sure his knights are prepared and armed at all times tonight."

Kairi's worried face relaxed into a small smile. "Thank you," she said, sounding relieved.

He continued, "But I really think you should wear one of the dresses that you bought today. It'll please the Queen, for one thing, and-"

"Sora!" Kairi protested. "I can't fight in a dress!"

Sora's eyebrows shot up his forehead. "Fight in a dress? Kairi . . . You can't fight at all!" he spluttered in amusement.

Kairi glared at him and smacked him on the leg. "I can, too. I may not be very polished, but I can fight if I'm not caught off guard like I was at Traverse Town. But I won't be able to do _anything_ to help if I'm in a dress."

"Kairi," Sora insisted, exasperated. "Just wear a dress. I _promise _you that you won't have to do any fighting-I'll look after you. Quit worrying so much about things that have a low probability of happening." Kairi watched with a sour expression as he rummaged through some of the scattered garments until he found something that stood out to him. He handed a bundle of black silk and white chiffon to her with a carefree, innocent smile.

Kairi held the dress up, pleasantly surprised to see that she, too liked it. It was very pretty, what with the way the white chiffon bodice gave way to three or four flouncy knee-length skirts. The black silk was used as a sash around the waist that tied in a medium-sized bow at the back, the tails of the bow falling to the hem of the outermost skirt. The strapless bodice had a sweetheart neckline, much like the dress she now wore, and laced up the front rather than the back, a black silk panel just beneath the laces.

"See? Since it's short, you'll be able to move just fine," Sora said encouragingly.

Kairi looked at him with narrow eyes. "All right, all right," she said. "I'll wear it. But I'll need help undoing the laces at the back of the dress I'm wearing now."

Sora held up his hands defensively. "Whatever it takes, Kai," he laughed as they both stood up.

Kairi turned around, gathering all of her long, long hair to one side of her head and exposing her shoulders and the back of her dress. She faintly shivered at the feeling of Sora's fingers deftly untying her dress.

"So how was _your_ day?" she asked quietly as her dress swiftly became looser and looser on her thin frame.

"Eh," he said. "Very manuscript-y. Riku, King Mickey, and I spent hours reading through books on Heartless that the King brought from Ansem's office in Radiant Gardens."

"I didn't know that there were books on Heartless," Kairi said thoughtfully as her dress slipped down her body and pooled at her feet in a puddle of white fabric. She cupped her own breasts in her hands and stepped out of it. "I always thought that Ansem was the only person who had written anything about them."

"Me, too," Sora murmured, his eyes roving over Kairi's panty-clad body as she turned to face him.

"Could you grab my dress?" Kairi asked after a long moment of Sora staring at her hands, the only barrier between his hungry gaze and her breasts.

"Huh? Oh . . . Yeah," he said, leaning down to grab the dress he'd picked out for her. He held it out to her, but she gave him an hesitant look. Her eyes went from her chest to him, then back to her chest, and he blushed in embarrassment. There was no way for her to grab the dress from his hands without giving him a peep show.

Not that she thought he would complain.

Kairi waited patiently for him to figure out a way to help her into her dress, and was extremely taken aback when the look in Sora's eyes changed from thoughtful to lustful all in a moment's time. She cried out in shock when he grabbed her hip and pulled her body against his roughly, causing her to let go of her breasts and take hold of his shoulders to steady herself.

"S-Sora?" she stammered in perplexity. "What . . . What are you doing?"

He leaned forward, his hands moving up her sides ever-so-slowly as he did so, and his eyes flashed that dangerous yellow color that terrified her so much.

"Feeling you," he murmured into her ear before his teeth grazed the lobe so gently that the pit of her stomach began to ache. Her knees wobbled and she leaned against him, her nipples brushing his rib cage as a pleasurable shudder ran through her tiny body.

"Sora, p-please . . ." she whispered as his lips trailed down the side of her neck. "The feast . . . You . . . You're not yourself . . ."

Kairi's eyes widened in stages as she found herself bent backward over the top of the king's desk. Papers and other inanimate objects clattered across the wood and rolled onto the floor as the boy she loved forced her to sit atop the aforementioned piece of furniture. Their breath mingled as he ran his hands down her scarred arms over and over again. She closed her eyes.

"I assure you," he chuckled. "I'm entirely myself."

_Sheesh, Kairi_, Namine growled in annoyance. _Can you not be alone with Sora for five minutes with you guys have a deep heart-to-heart and exploring each other's bodies like two third graders?_

Kairi was about to retort, but Sora's wandering hands began to move up her stomach, inching toward her bare breasts and forcing her into complete and total silence of the mind. Her head fell back and her back arched-she longed for him to touch her where she'd never been touched by anyone else before; longed for the Keyblade Master's strong hands to show her just how breakable she was.

"Sora . . ." His name fell from between her lips like the ghost of a sound, barely audible over the sounds of her heavy breathing. Sora dipped his head to her shoulder, and she felt his smile against her skin as his fingers ghosted up over her nipples. The feeling she experienced was intense and unlike any other, sending a lance of lightning straight down to the area between her legs. Sora repeated the action, apparently liking her reaction and groaning as she arched into his touch as much as she possibly could.

Just then, a knock came at the door that seemed to echo around the entire room so loudly that Kairi cringed.

"Hey, you guys about finished in there?"

"Riku," Sora grimaced. He looked over his shoulder as he stepped away from Kairi. "Yeah . . . Just . . . Give us a minute."

Kairi hurriedly slipped into the strapless white dress Sora had chosen, turning around so he could tie the bow in the back while she tied the laces at the front. She felt Sora combing his fingers through her long, long hair, desperately trying to arrange it.

Riku burst into the room as the two disheveled, heavily-breathing, and embarrassed teenagers bustling about the room, gathering up the clothes that Kairi had tossed about. His aquamarine eyes roved around the room incredulously, positively shocked at the damage the two had done.

"Good God, what happened in here?!" Riku cried. "Holy shit, it looks like a tornado came through here!"

"Nothing happened," Kairi snapped, hurriedly folding dresses and stuffing them back into their boxes.

"There wasn't any tornado," Sora added, following suit and trying his best to fold as well as she could.

Riku crossed his arms over his chest and eyed the two of them with a knowing smirk playing about his lips. He was clad in an outfit similar to Sora's, only the jerkin and his boots were both colored a light tan. His hair was loose and wavy about his shoulders and he seemed a bit on the upbeat, energetic side.

"Maybe not a tornado," he chuckled, earning himself a dark look from Sora. He rolled his eyes and then said, "Anyway, I didn't come here to pry into your hidden sex life, you guys. I came here to see if Kairi was okay, and to talk to Sora for a minute."

Sora stopped folding for a moment to give Riku a quizzical look. "Talk?" he asked. "About what?"

"Well," Riku said as he reached into the chest of his jerkin and produced what looked like a folded-up letter from within the lapel. He waved it somewhat lazily in the air. "I found this in one of the books that was in the castle Library."

Sora rose to his feet in one fluid motion with a frown on his face.

"What is it?" he asked, reaching for the paper.

Riku held it just out of his grasp, a devilish glint in his eyes. "Not so fast. I have to ask you a few things first."

Kairi scowled as she packed up the last box. "Riku, quit messing around and just make your point already."

"Sheesh, _someone's_ feisty . . ." Riku muttered as he unfolded the paper and looked down at it. "It's a diary entry."

"A diary entry?" sora asked. "From whose diary?"

"Uhh . . . Some guy named Ventus." Riku glanced up. "Ring any bells?"

Kairi and Sora both shook their heads simultaneously.

"Nope," Kairi said.

"Me neither," Sora added. "Did you ask the King?"

"Nah," Riku said with a shrug. "It's probably no big deal. I'll just hold onto it until we get around to visiting Radiant Gardens-figured your friend Leon might know a thing or two."

"Yeah," Sora chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck. "Leon has a tendency to know more than he should. Anyway, you ready to head down to the feast?"

"Sure," Riku answered, re-folding the diary entry and slipping it back into the front of his jerkin. He looked Kairi up and down and flashed her a winning smile. "You look beautiful, Kairi, as usual."

"Thanks," she said somewhat absentmindedly. She was furiously racking her brain for any information on this "Ventus" that Riku had spoken of. His name sounded so familiar and yet . . . So unfamiliar. She frowned and asked Namine, but Namine didn't know anything about him either. Kairi supposed they'd find out in due time; right now, she wanted to focus all of her attention on the feast and the possibility of the events in her dream coming true. She also wanted to try her best to figure out the meaning behind the raven-haired girl's message.

"_The keys forms at the joined seams."_

What could that mean?

Sora, Kairi, and Riku headed down to the Dining Hall, the boys' joking and laughter echoing off of the high, stone ceilings as they padded down the burgundy carpet. Kairi's eyes lingered on the potted plant that she had purged in the night before, wondering what everyone would think if they knew. Riku had commented on how much weight she'd lost just that morning, but so far, Sora hadn't really said much about it. It irked Kairi, in a way, and fueled her desires to continue her weight loss journey.

Maybe if she wasted away, he'd finally love her.

The Dining Hall was like an extravagant piece of art all on its own. The entirety of it was the same silvery stone as the rest of the castle, and along the back wall, great windows reached from floor to ceiling, leading out to grand balconies that overlooked the town. There were twenty or so fifteen-foot long wooden tables arranged in perfect rows and columns and one great round table in-between them and the tables. Currently, nobody but the three teens were in the Hall.

Riku darted forward to the circular table, throwing his arms up into the air and "tra-la-la-ing" his way to one of the seats. He could be so eccentric sometimes that it was sometimes difficult to believe he'd ever been a stoic, creepy follower of the Darkness at the beginning of their journeys.

"Sora, how come there's nobody here? I thought the feast was starting soon," Kairi commented quietly, though her voice still seemed to echo in the gargantuan room.

Sora replied in a quiet murmur, "No one is usually allowed to enter until the Great Circle is filled. It's an ancient tradition of theirs."

"And the Great circle is . . . ?"

"Just the royal family and any special guests. It's usually the King, the Queen, their little boy Tiny Tim, Donald, Daisy, Donald's nephews Huey, Duey, and Louie, Goofy, and Goofy's wife Clarabelle," Sora explained. "Tonight, I'm sure it'll be all of them, and then us at the table. The townspeople will fill the surrounding tables."

Kairi nodded as they walked down the long Hall and took their seats at the table, Sora beside Riku and Kairi beside Sora. Riku and Sora immediately fell into light conversation about some of the manuscripts they'd read earlier that day with the King in the Library, leaving Kairi to pore over her thoughts and converse inside her head with a slightly miffed Namine.

_Kairi, seriously, you've got to get a hold of your hormones. It's kind-of frustrating-I'm starting to dread the times you're alone with Sora__, _she told Kairi angrily.

Kairi placed her elbow on the tabletop and rested her chin in her hand as she zoned out. '_I'm really sorry, Namine . . .' _she said honestly to her Nobody. '_It's not like we plan it or anything.'_

_I understand that it's not planned, but so far this is the third time you guys have gotten . . . Well . . . Frisky. Maybe you could talk to him about it . . . ? Maybe you could see if he's aware of it__?_

'_Aware of it? Aware of what?' _Kairi queried in confusion, her brow furrowing.

_Well . . . He's not stupid. It's not like he just loses complete control and it just happens, and then he totally forgets about it right after. It's like . .. Where do you guys stand? Are you in a relationship? Does he __**want**__ to be in a relationship with you? Or are his intentions just to explore for the sake of exploring a woman's body?_

Kairi's eyes wandered over to the boy in question, watching as he laughed and excitedly waved his hands about whilst telling Riku about something he'd read. His cobalt blue eyes were lit up with something short of pure joy and in all honesty, he looked happier than she'd seen him in a long, long time. It was like . . . It was like he was back to his old self. In fact, it'd been awhile since she'd heard him say any of those strange, dark sayings that he'd been constantly spouting off back home on the Islands. She felt happy just seeing him so carefree, and her love for him grew even more, if that were possible.

Still . . . Namine's point was dangerously spot-on. What _did_ Sora want? Was he just using Kairi because she was one of his best friends and because she let him do things like kiss her neck and, as he had in the king's study, touch her breasts? Was this something he planned and looked forward to? What exactly were his feelings for her? Namine had said that Kairi should talk to him about it, but Kairi didn't think she could.

And yet, her confession was inevitable. One day, she wasn't going to be able to contain her love for him in her heart any longer, and it was going to spill out of her tiny body like boiling water from a pot. Even as she looked upon him, her heart felt fit to burst with all of her emotions. She was forced to turn her head and discreetly wipe away the tears that threatened to fall.

_Oh, Kairi_, Namine sighed fondly. _As noble as your secrecy is, you've got to tell him one day soon. It's unhealthy to keep something like this in._

'_I know_,' Kairi replied. '_I'm just . . . I feel like I've got to be perfect for him first.'_

Namine gave an exasperated sigh. _I've told you this thousands of times, Kairi! You're perfect right now! He thinks you're perfect! Why do you feel the need to lose all this nonexistent weight! You have no fat on your bones__!_

Kairi remained silent, feeling no need to explain herself more to a girl who was supposed to be her other half, and who knew the inside of her head most likely better than she herself did. She got irritated with Namine sometimes and how clueless she could be.

A hand on her thigh snapped Kairi out of her reverie and she blushed at the sight of Sora's hand on the white chiffon of her dress's skirts. Riku's attention had been drawn elsewhere-to the King's little son Tiny Tim who was seated beside him in one of the high-back wooden chairs that ringed the table on top of something reminiscent to a booster seat one would find at a fast food restaurant back on the Islands. Apparently, the "Great Circle" had been filled while Kairi was thinking to herself. Everyone that Sora had named off was there, along with an irritable-looking duck that Donald called "Uncle Scrooge." They were all conversing amiably while the rest of the hall slowly filled with townspeople and their children.

"Are you feeling all right?" Sora murmured in a low tone, ignoring a couple of shouts of his name by some of the townspeople. Even here, he was considered a great hero to the town's inhabitants. Kairi felt somewhat proud that he was paying full attention to her, and not to his "fans."

"I'm fine," she whispered back. "Why do you ask?"

"Heh heh," he chuckled, nervously rubbing the back of his neck. "You looked like you were off in your own world there; that's all."

She kept her head bowed and looked up at Sora somewhat shyly through her lashes. He was gazing down at her through his long bangs, which were shrouding his eyes most handsomely, and she found that the combination of his strong hand seeming to engulf her entire thigh and the intensity of his innocent stare was enough to give her the chills. She couldn't read the emotion in those sparkling irises, though, so she merely lowered her gaze again.

"Thank you for your concern," she replied politely, knowing that there were many ears around them that could hear their conversation. Kairi knew that as a Princess of Heart, she was expected to be on ceremony at all times in the presence of royalty like King Mickey so as to give a good first impression.

Sora smiled slightly and leaned even closer; so close, in fact, that it almost appeared that he was going to kiss her. It took every fiber in her being not to close the space between them and dart forward to taste his lips, especially with him displaying that impish smile that always seemed to remind her of Anti-Sora.

"The hickeys on your neck are quite obvious, Kai," he breathed, his eyes positively dancing with naughtiness.

Kairi flushed deep red and hurriedly arrange her elbow-length hair so that it fell about her face in a slightly-wavy, elegant way. She had forgotten all about the marks Sora had left upon her flesh, and hadn't known they were so obvious.

"Well," she huffed in reply, reaching up and fondly patting his cheek, "I blame you. So there."

Sora's grin widened. "You'll be doing more than blaming me the second I get you alone again."

Kairi's jaw dropped out of pure astonishment and she hurriedly turned her face to the front, away from Sora's devious lips and playfully teasing eyes. She could hardly believe what he'd just said. Maybe it was the atmosphere that was getting to him . . . Maybe he was just feeling a bit under the weather. Yeah. That was it. Under the weather.

_Kairi. Are you kidding me? Literally twenty minutes ago, he was touching your boobs. He's definitely not under the weather_, Namine scowled. _Honestly, I'd be afraid if I were you__._

'_Afraid? What is there to be afraid of? He's just . . . He's just messing around.'_

_Yeah, you both seem to be 'messing around' quite a bit lately__ . . . _She grumbled before finally retreating into the recesses of Kairi's mind.

Dinner progressed almost uneventfully. After the King stood up to give a speech on honoring the souls of Traverse Town's deceased and ordered a toast to Sora, Riku, Donald, and Goofy for their bravery during the battle, dinner came. Kairi handled it with ease, piling her plate high with food and pushing it around and around with her fork until it looked as if she'd eaten several helpings in a row. Sora hardly even paid attention to her during dinner, finding himself engaged in conversation with the other occupants of the table. They all seemed to be finding a story about Goofy being late for one of his own birthday parties a few years ago quite humorous, so nobody paid any attention to Kairi's eating habits.

Except for Tiny Tim.

"How come the Princess hasn't eaten any of her food?" his high-pitched, squeaky voice rang out over all other talking at the round table. "It's quite delicious-you should have some, milady!"

A deathly silence settled over the entire table, and even some of the townspeople at nearby tables fell quiet. It seemed that all eyes were on Kairi and there was no way out of this.

"Thank you for your concern, Tiny Tim," Kairi said sweetly, carefully avoiding Sora's burning stare to look the King's son directly in the eye. "But I _have_ eaten. And it's very delicious."

"No offense, Kai," Riku spoke up, "but you honestly haven't touched your dinner save to push it around a bit. It's kind-of obvious. Are you feeling sick?"

"I'm fine," Kairi said, her smile seeming strained. Her heart was pounding at a million miles per minute, and now, almost all of the guests in the entire Dining Hall were watching her, hanging on every word that was spoken at her table.

"Then why aren't you eating?!" Uncle Scrooge quacked. "It seems quite obvious that if you're not feeling under the weather, and you think the food is delicious, then it only makes the most sense to eat the food!"

Kairi felt on the verge of tears. She couldn't look at Sora, Riku, or anyone else at the table. Her eyes seemed to bounce around wildly in her head as the pressure built and built until she felt like her heart and head were going to simultaneously explode.

"Pl-Please excuse me," she whispered, rising from her seat, turning, and running out of the Dining Hall. She felt the tears begin to fall, slipping down her cheeks like diamonds of despair as she slipped through the double doors and hurried down the hall to the nearest room.

"Kairi!"

At the sound of Riku's voice, Kairi halted and turned, surprised that he'd followed her.

"Kairi, what's _wrong_?" he demanded, eyebrows pulled together with concern. "Why did you run? Why didn't you just eat? Why-"

"Just _stop_, Riku!" Kairi shrieked. "Just leave me alone!"

Riku grabbed her wrist tightly as she turned to go again and yanked her back. She stumbled, steadying herself just before she felt against him.

"Does this have anything to do with those scars on your arms?" he hissed with such rage in his eyes that it frightened her. "Does it?!"

"No, Riku," Kairi sighed. "It doesn't."

"Then _what_, Kairi?!" he said, grabbing both of her hands and searching her face desperately for answers. "Sora's in there, pissed of as fuck because he has no idea what's up with you, and the townspeople are whispering, asking questions that shouldn't be asked."

"I'm sorry!" Kairi sobbed, more and more tears falling down her heart-shaped face. "I'm sorry, but there's nothing I can do!"

"Nothing you can do?!" Riku looked beyond perplexed. "Kairi, what are you _talking_ about?! I can't help you if you won't tell me what's going on with you!"

Kairi stared at him for a long moment of tense silence before a gut-wrenching sob broke loose from her body. She _couldn't_ tell him; she just couldn't.

Because then . . . He'd make her stop.

He'd make her stop, and she didn't _want_ to stop.

Kairi ripped her hands out of Riku's grasp and made quickly for the doors to the garden, knowing that it was her only escape. She didn't hear Riku behind her, but she didn't stop her breakneck pace. She barely heard Namine's desperate pleas for her to calm down-barely registered the immense pain in her chest as her heart struggled to keep beating. Tears drifted lightly down her cheeks, a testament to her inability to accept help.

Because how do you learn to take a helping hand when you didn't even have the hands free to help yourself?


End file.
